NEC Corporation is buying Convergys information management unit for $449 million in cash in a deal that will give it added might in the billing business. 

The assets will be integrated with NEC’s NetCracker subsidiary.  

Though the Convergys business covers the telecommunications, cable, satellite, broadband, utilities and logistics markets, NetCracker plans to use the assets to focus on billing, customer care, revenue management and operations solutions for telecom companies. 

“The industry is at a point where the traditional approach to BSS/OSS is just not enough,” NetCracker President and CEO Andrew Feinberg said during a conference call today. “The kind of costs operators have to incur… is just too high. You see more and more looking at alternative approaches to manage that cost.” 

The acquisition is expected to close sometime late in the second quarter of this year. 

NetCracker will gain about 2,400 employees and 150 customers from the deal and aims to become the telecommunications sector's go-to end-to-end provider for billing and operations management systems, said Sanjay Mewada, NetCracker’s vice president of strategy, during the call. 

Convergys employs 77,000 people worldwide and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Japan-based NEC bought NetCracker in 2008, adding operating support systems to its telecommunications products. NEC said at the time that NetCracker's assets would be a key part of its expansion into international markets.  

NEC’s communications business currently includes software, services and equipment for LTE, mobile backhaul, cloud computing, undersea cable systems and more. The company said the unit "contributed substantially" to last year's sales of $37.53 billion.