Lightbridge Sells Telecom Decisioning Business to Vesta Corp

By Beverly Maniago

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Lightbridge (News - Alert), Inc., a transaction processing company that manages customer transactions to help companies increase profits, announced this week the sale of its telecom decisioning services (TDS) business to Vesta Corporation.

 

Vesta, which describes itself as a pioneer in the payment solutions market, paid $2.5 million for Lightbridge’s division. As part of the deal, Vest is assuming some of the contractual liabilities of the business.

 

Lightbridge said that selling the TDS business will allow the company to focus more on payment processing, which offers promising growth potential. The decision was based on the Dec. 31, 2006 expiration of a contract with Sprint (News - Alert) Nextel, which represented the largest Lightbridge TDS client.

 

Robert Donahue, Chief Executive Officer at Lightbridge, Inc., expressed the senimtent that this sale is in the best interest of both Lightbridge and Vesta.

 

“We believe the TDS platform is a great complement to Vesta Corporation's existing portfolio of services and solutions,” Donahue said in a statement. “As announced in October 2006, we think it was in the best interest of our shareholders to exit the TDS business. We are pleased to have concluded a sale to Vesta and believe that this is a positive transaction for both companies as well as the existing TDS clients and employees.”

 

Lightbridge expects it will spend approximately $6.5 - $13 million on restructuring and other asset impairment charges related to the sale. The company is also expecting to lay off at least 200 employees through the second quarter of 2007.

 

In addition, Lightbridge plans to move its corporate headquarters from Marlborough, MA to a 45,554 square foot space in Burlington, MA. The move should be complete by the end of March.

 

Lightbridge is a leading analytics, decisioning, and E (News - Alert)-commerce Company that manages customer’s transactions. It offers services to add value to credit qualification, fraud screening, and payment authorization. Businesses use the services to provide secure payments, deliver better services, reduce costs, and make smarter decisions.

 

Beverly Maniago is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.