computer science

Tekelec

Tekelec is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tekelec rather than just read about it. In short: Tekelec, Inc. was a Morrisville, North Carolina–based telecommunications company. It developed hardware and software for networks that are fixed, wireless, or packet-based.

Key takeaways

Tekelec belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tekelec to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tekelec from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tekelec, Inc. was a Morrisville, North Carolina–based telecommunications company. It developed hardware and software for networks that are fixed, wireless, or packet-based. It provided IP services to help mobile carriers with network signaling, policy control, and subscriber data management. The company, founded in Calabasas, California, in 1971, was acquired by Oracle in 2013, from Siris Capital Group.

Corporate history

Founding by Jean-Claude Asscher In 1961, Jean-Claude Asscher founded Tekelec-Airtronic, SA, a French electronics company with emphasis on the aviation industry. In 1977, Tekelec, Inc. was founded as a sales office for Tekelec-Airtronic. Tekelec was then founded in 1979 by Philip Black and Jean-Claude Asscher, half owned by Tekelec-Airtronic but still independent. It was founded as a North American company specializing in telecommunications products, such as telecommunications test and network simulation equipment. It was based in Santa Monica, California Tekelec was initially financed by proceeds earned by Jean-Claude Asscher through Tekelec-Airtronic. The Company moved to Calabasas, California, in 1984. For many years, Jean-Claude Asscher was president, CEO, and chairman of the board of directors of both Tekelec-Airtronic and Tekelec. In recent years Jean-Claude Asscher has served as only chairman of Tekelec's board of directors while continuing to be the president of Tekelec-Airtronic's board of directors as well as its chairman. Tekelec, Inc.’s IPO was in May 1986 on NASDAQ under the symbol TKLC. CEO Phillip Black, COO Michael Leigh, CFO Phillip Alford.

Philip Black spinoff and going public Asscher found Philip Black, in the early 1980s, who was tasked with re-creating the U.S Tekelec company so that could successfully sell Tekelec Airtronic products in the U.S., or create their own testing products. Philip Black assembled a core crew of people, and his team created, marketed and sold the protocol simulator analyzers, named Chameleon and Chameleon II which fueled the sales of Tekelec for over 10 years. Tekelec successfully competed with two pre-existing competitors, Atlantic Research and Idacom, to become the dominant player in this specific type of test equipment. The company went public in the mid-1980s. Tekelec later transitioned to operating equipment in the form of Signalling System 7 products, under the initial lead of Peter Vicars, who followed Philip Black as CEO. In 1985, Tekelec established a subsidiary in Tokyo, Japan. In 1986 the company went public.

Peter N Vicars as CEO

Peter N Vicars joined Tekelec and served as its President and Chief Executive Officer from July 1987 until January 1994. During this tenure revenues increased from $13M to $58M while maintaining six years of double-digit profitability within its core business of testing solutions which represented 85% of corporate revenues. Vicars acquired and integrated a leading SS7 company (Protocol Technologies) to strengthen Tekelec's market position in cellular and switching technology. Based on that acquisition, Vicars guided the entry into a new market for the corporation. The Eagle platform and revenues grew to $12 million over the first year of product shipments. Vicars is also credited for implementing an expense reduction program, due to the switching product startup development and initial market entry costs, which returned the corporation to profitability. In March 1992, the company created the subsidiary Tekelec Canada. In March 1998, Michael L. Margolis became CEO. In 2001, T-Mobile Germany signed a deal with Tekelec. In February 2003, Frederick M. Lax became CEO. In May 2003, Tekelec said it would buy a controlling share of Santera, therefore creating a subsidiary to sell products such as softswitches, media gateways, and signaling gateways. Tekelec opened a subsidiary in India in 2004. In 2004, Tekelec acquired the softswitch company Taqua Systems in Richardson, Texas for $85 million in cash. At the time, Tekelec remained based in Calabasas, California under CEO Fred Lax. Lax said that Taqua's focus on small Class 5 switches would complement Tekelec's business in Santera Class 4 packet switch businesses. In August 2005, Tekelec agreed to buy Steleus Group for $65 million. The deal added switches to Tekelec's product offerings.

Ronald J. de Lange Ronald J. de Lange joined Tekelec in July 2005 and served as executive vice president Global Business Solutions before being promoted to CEO in May 2011. On August 3, 2005, Tekelec purchased German and Czech-based iptelorg GmbH, developer of leading-edge Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) routing software, securing a critical IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) capability for Tekelec.

Franco (Frank) Plastina Franco Plastina joined Tekelec as president and CEO and as a director in February 2006, taking over from former CEO Fred Lax. Lax had resigned in January 2006, when Tekelec relocated its headquarters from California to Cary. Plastina stepped down from his position as President and CEO of Tekelec in January 2011 following poor results where sales of the main product line, Eagle, dropped off much more sharply than expected, before replacement products (such as policy) became fully available. Krish Prabhu, a member of the Board of Directors, was appointed Interim President and CEO. In April 2006, Tekelec sold its subsidiary IEX Corporation for $200 million. In May 2006, the company said it had restated its financial results for 2003, 2004, and 2005 after accounting errors were found.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tekelec

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tekelec claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tekelec before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tekelec ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tekelec

In research: Tekelec appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tekelec in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tekelec is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1971 establishments in California, 2013 disestablishments in North Carolina, 2013 mergers and acquisitions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tekelec outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tekelec in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tekelec means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tekelec out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tekelec in simple terms?

Tekelec, Inc. was a Morrisville, North Carolina–based telecommunications company. It developed hardware and software for networks that are fixed, wireless, or packet-based.

Why does Tekelec matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tekelec?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tekelec.