Mobile cloud communications company Sinch has agreed to acquire Inteliquent, a voice communications provider, for $1.14bn, giving it a significant foothold in voice communications in the US.

SoftBank-backed Sinch will use the acquisition to broaden its communications platform as a service (CPaaS) offering, while continuing Inteliquent’s ‘close cooperation’ with its partners. Inteliquent has partners across cloud communications, collaboration, unified communications, contact centres, and every major US carrier.

“Becoming a leader in the US voice market is key to establish Sinch as the leading global cloud communications platform,” said Oscar Werner, Sinch CEO. “Inteliquent serves the largest and most demanding voice customers in America with superior quality backed by a fully-owned network across the entire US. Our joint strengths in voice and messaging provide a unique position to grow our business and power a superior customer experience for our customers.”

Inteliquent offers an API that lets business acquire phone numbers and embed voice calling into their own products of business processes, while operating a carrier-grade tier 1 network which covers 94 per cent of the US population. It handles more than 300bn minutes of voice calling per year and has registered over 100m active phone numbers for its customers.

“We’re excited about the tremendous opportunities this combination unlocks, expanding the services we can provide to our customers,” said Ed O’Hara, Inteliquent CEO. “Combining our leading voice offering with Sinch’s global messaging capabilities truly positions us for leadership in the rapidly developing market for cloud communications.”

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2021.

It is the fifth acquisition has made in the last year, including its purchases of SAP Digital Interconnect, ACL Mobile, and Wavy.