Swedish software vendor Enea will acquire Openwave Mobility for $90 million in a deal that will boost its network functions virtualization (NFV) offering for mobile operators.

Openwave Mobility’s NFV software allows mobile operators to manage and monetize encrypted and unencrypted traffic. It is based in part on technology that Enea acquired through its Qosmos purchase a year ago.

Openwave Mobility claims its NFV platform is currently deployed by seven of the top 20 mobile operators worldwide. The California-based company’s portfolio also includes cloud-native products for subscriber data management.

Just today, Openwave Mobility said that 10 operators have deployed its NFV-based solutions in the past 12 months. Most of these operators deployed its virtual network function (VNF) for real-time encrypted video traffic management. The momentum with Tier 1 operators in particular has been significant with Orange, Vodafone, and Zain all publicly announcing deployments of Openwave Mobility’s VNF for Video Traffic Management.

Openwave's revenues totaled about $27 million in 2017, and Enea expects to improve its operating margins by the end of this year.

Enea said it will finance the acquisition with cash and a previously issued 500 million Swedish Krona bond. The deal is expected to close in April.

“The combination of Openwave Mobility and Enea provides an exciting evolution and reflects a change in the overall value chain, where independent software vendors will play a bigger and more significant role moving forward,” said John Giere, CEO of Openwave Mobility, in a statement.

Openwave Mobility’s management and founders will continue to work in the combined business, according to Enea.

In June 2017, Enea and three other vendors — ARM, Marvell, and PicoCluster — collaborated on a miniature OPNFV developer’s lab in a box called the NFV PicoPod. The one-cubic-foot device acts as a data center on a desktop for NFV developers.