WESTFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sonus Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:SONS), a global leader in SIP-based communications, today announced that as part of the Company’s previously announced stock buyback program, it has agreed to repurchase approximately 3.1 million shares of the Company’s common stock in a privately negotiated transaction with Empire Capital Management, L.L.C. (“Empire”) at $3.50 per share, the market closing price on August 23, 2013, for a total purchase price of approximately $11 million. The Company will pay for the share repurchase using cash on hand.

“Similar to our share repurchase recently announced with the Legatum Group, this transaction with Empire will allow us to reduce the concentration of one of our largest shareholders in an orderly fashion.”

Prior to the transaction, as reflected in filings made by Empire with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Empire owned 30.5 million shares, or approximately 11%, of the Company’s outstanding common stock. Following the transaction, Empire will own 27.4 million shares, or approximately 10%, of the Company’s outstanding common stock.

President and Chief Executive Officer of Sonus Networks, Ray Dolan, commented, “Similar to our share repurchase recently announced with the Legatum Group, this transaction with Empire will allow us to reduce the concentration of one of our largest shareholders in an orderly fashion.”

The Company announced on July 29, 2013 that the Board of Directors had authorized a stock buyback program to repurchase up to $100 million of the Company’s common stock from time to time on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. The timing and amount of any shares repurchased will be determined by the Company's management based on its evaluation of market conditions and other factors. Repurchases may also be made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, which would permit shares to be repurchased when the Company might otherwise be precluded from doing so under insider trading laws. The buyback program may be suspended or discontinued at any time. The buyback program will be funded using the Company's working capital. As of June 28, 2013, the Company had cash, cash equivalents and investments of $304.0 million. As of July 18, 2013, and prior to the transactions with Empire and the Legatum Group, there were 282.8 million shares of the Company’s common stock outstanding.

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Sonus Networks, Sonus, SONS, share repurchase, stock, buyback, IP-based network solutions, SBC, SBC 1000, SBC 2000, SBC 5100, SBC 5200, SBC 9000, session border controller, VX series, session management, SIP trunking, Cloud VoIP communications, unified communications, UC, VoIP, IP, TDM.

About Sonus Networks

Sonus helps the world's leading communications service providers and enterprises embrace the next generation of SIP-based solutions including VoIP, video and Unified Communications through secure, reliable and scalable IP networks. With customers around the globe and over 15 years of experience transforming networks to IP, Sonus has enabled service providers to capture and retain users and both service providers and enterprises to generate significant ROI. Sonus products include session border controllers, policy/routing servers, subscriber feature servers and media and signaling gateways. Sonus products are supported by a global services team with experience in design, deployment and maintenance of some of the world's largest and most complex IP networks. For more information, visit www.sonus.net or call 1-855-GO-SONUS.

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The information in this release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words “anticipates”, “believes”, “could”, “estimates”, “expects”, “expectations”, “intends”, “may”, “plans”, “seeks”, “projects” and other similar language, whether in the negative or affirmative, are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.

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