Amdocs Buys Phone Manager

Amdocs (DOX) branches into phone network management with a $375 million deal for closely held London-based Cramer Systems.

The St. Louis telecom billing and customer service provider says the all-cash agreement will allow Amdocs to provide phone companies with what is called operational support systems, or OSS.

"With a quality company like Cramer, Amdocs expects to be well positioned to capitalize on the growth opportunity that OSS represents," CEO Dov Baharav said in a press release Tuesday.

The transaction is expected to close in the current fiscal quarter and cause about 4 cents of dilution to the fiscal 2007 pro forma earnings. Amdocs expects the deal to be accretive in fiscal 2008.

The company is set to release fiscal third -quarter earnings Wednesday after the market's close.

Amdocs shares closed down 15 cents at $34.25 Tuesday.