COS Systems acquired by Pivot
Having a strong foundation in the mature Swedish Open Access market and a global customer base, COS Systems is currently expanding rapidly in North America. With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic still spreading across our world – changing the way we live, work, and learn, one thing has become clear to community leaders; Without access to high speed internet your community is vulnerable.
“The digital divide has been a known problem for a long time, but it took a crisis to put it on top of the agenda. Outside of the largest cities, residents and businesses are struggling to go on with their day-to-day lives, with outdated or non-existent infrastructure to connect to the internet. Now, community leaders are stepping up and taking their digital future in their own hands by investing, or finding partnerships to build high-speed fiber infrastructure,” says Isak Finer, CMO & VP North America at COS Systems.
This critical infrastructure has been proven to be as important to communities as roads, water and electricity and should therefore be treated as such. The True Open Access business model, supported by COS Systems since the company’s inception, is ideal for these infrastructure projects.
“With one entity owning the infrastructure and multiple service providers selling services on it, the subscriber can choose what suits their needs best, while competition between providers will drive the quality up, and price down. It is also a future-proof model since providers of not only internet, but any type of services such as tele-health, and smart services are free to use the infrastructure. Even small rural communities can become ‘smart’ as the capital-intensive network deployment, the largest entry hurdle for providers, has been removed,” explains Bjorn Wannman, Sales Manager at COS Systems.
“COS Systems’ has established a strong position in a market with enormous potential for growth. We are excited about the unique product offering of both demand aggregation and open access BSS/OSS platforms, paired with the turning point towards larger community investments in fiber optic infrastructure. The logical business model to choose for a community is True Open Access as it offers better revenue potential and allows a democratization of broad band services. We will ensure COS Systems has the resources to meet this increasing market demand,” says Niklas Hofverberg, partner at Pivot Partners.
COS Systems’ international expansion will be supported on the Board of Directors by Stefan Georgi as Chairman, who brings significant experience from the sector as an industrial and strategic advisor, and Mikael Philipsson as a member, who has previously been the CEO of IP-Only and has deep sector expertise.
“I am proud of what our great staff and original owners have accomplished this far. As the industry is now at a point of change and expansion never seen before, it is the perfect time to get new owners on board. Pivot Partners brings expertise and resources to build on our previous successes and take COS to the next level,” says Peter Lidstrom, CEO of COS Systems.