Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries announced it will acquire US-based software company Radisys to accelerate software innovation at its mobile unit Reliance Jio.

Reliance Industries signed a definitive agreement to buy 100 per cent of Radisys for $1.72 per share in cash, which sources said value the deal at $74 million.

Akash Ambani, director of Reliance Jio, said: “Radisys’ top-class management and engineering team offer Reliance rapid innovation and solution development expertise globally, which complements our work towards software-centric disaggregated networks and platforms, enhancing the value to customers across consumer and enterprise segments.”

“This acquisition further accelerates Jio’s global innovation and technology leadership in the areas of 5G, IoT and open-source architecture adoption.”

Radisys, which develops software for telecoms operators, has nearly 600 staff, with an engineering team in Bangalore, India. Radisys CEO Brian Bronson said the team will continue to work independently on driving its future growth, innovation and expansion. Reliance’s backing, he said, “will accelerate our strategy and the scale required by our customers to further deploy our full suite of products and services.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory clearance and approval of Radisys’ shareholders: it is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Reliance said it plans to finance the transaction through its own internal accruals.

Jio, which launched nationwide 4G service in September 2016, became the second largest operator in the country by “access service gross revenue” for the first time, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in a report on Q1 2018.

The operator disrupted the Indian mobile sector with free and low-cost tariffs: it said it hit 200 million subscribers in May 2018.