TELECOMS SOFTWARE company Prime Carrier has been acquired by Flint Telecom, an Irish-owned firm that operates in the US. Financial deals of the transaction were not disclosed, but it is understood to be a share-based transaction.

Prime Carrier’s major shareholders – ACT Venture Capital and Advent Venture Partners – have approved the transaction as has Enterprise Ireland, which was an early-stage investor.

Flint Telecom was founded by Vincent Browne, an experienced telecoms industry executive, in 2005. Earlier this year, it completed a $5 million fundraising from private investors. At the end of April, it announced a reverse takeover of Semotus Solutions, a Californian company whose shares trade over the counter.

Flint has developed its own technology that enables cable com-panies, internet service providers and other telecoms players to provide voice over IP telephone services to their customers. According to Mr Browne, Flint provides a fully managed service to these service providers and enters into a revenue sharing arrangement with them. It has signed up 15 US customers to date.

Mr Browne was founder of Prime Carrier and continued to be a director even after establishing Flint. Prime Carrier developed a trading system for telecoms carriers that enabled them to purchase interconnection contracts. Customers included BT Ireland, US mobile operator Alltel, Dutch telecoms group KPN and cable operator UPC.

“The Prime Carrier acquisition will help us to start our inter-national growth,” said Mr Browne.

According to its most recently filed accounts, Prime Carrier had retained losses of €20.1 million at the end of March 2006 and had an operating loss of €53,338 in the previous 12 months.

Prime Carrier employs 15 staff, while Flint has over 30 people.