By the mid-1990s, one of its most successful products allowed legal authorities and intelligence agencies to record and store data collected from intercepted communications.

Starting in the late 1990s, Comverse's voice messaging software became its main product and the company grew rapidly with the surge in mobile phone use, passing the $1 billion mark in revenues.

It established a formidable position in the worldwide mobile voicemail management market and sold a popular short message service center (SMSC) product.

Alexander and two other top executives were charged in the US with multiple counts of conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and making false filings.

Their activities at the time of their belonging to Comverse Technology were: The company's origins date to 1982 (or 1983, sources differ), when three Israelis, aspiring investment banker Jacob "Kobi" Alexander of Shearson Loeb Rhoades, engineer Boaz Misholi, and Alexander brother-in-law and Columbia University computer science professor Yechiam Yemini, got together and founded an Israeli start-up company, Efrat Future Technologies Ltd.[15][16][17][18] In a meeting in New York, Misholi had the idea of building a business around centralized hardware systems to support voice and fax messaging and selling them to telecommunications companies and other large enterprises, who could then resell the voice and fax services to their customers.

[15] The three quickly returned to Israel and started the company, with the goal of securing Israeli government grants to fund the research and development work.

[19] In 1986 Comverse went public on the Nasdaq Stock Market with a $20 million valuation; the company used the money so gained as its final round of funding.

[21] In 1990, Comverse won a potentially $10 million contract, its largest yet, to deliver computers running voicemail and fax applications on West German cellular networks, beating out far larger corporations in the process.

[19] The company also sought a variety of other markets, including developing countries such as Mexico and China for its Trilogue virtual telephone service.

[30] By 1995, Comverse was best known for its AudioDisk product, which was sold to overseas clients and allowed legal authorities and intelligence agencies to record and store data collected from wiretaps.

[15][20] It continued to aggressively acquire small companies to fill out its technologies, as exemplified by the purchase of Loronix, Gaya Software, and Exalink, all within a 30-day period in 2000.

[17] The company was able to raise money several times on Nasdaq, including once for its Ulticom subsidiary[9] and once (at a valuation of $600 million) shortly before the Dot-com bubble burst.

[43]) The company was also quintessentially Israeli in how it was run, with Comverse CEO Ze'ev Bregman in particular favoring a loose, relaxed system in which he knew all the employees and lines of management reporting were frequently bypassed.

[13] The early 2000s recession led to some struggles for Comverse Technology,[13] with the global economic downturn leading to publicly announced profit warnings[46] and a plunge in the stock price in July 2001.

[47][48][49][50][51] The company still made some acquisitions, such as buying the instant messaging specialist Odigo for $20 million in 2002, after having previously purchased a 12 percent stake in it in 2001.

[35] Comverse's management was criticized by analysts for having issued over-optimistic forecasts,[35] although many other Israeli firms in the industry did even worse or failed completely during this period.

[57] Fox News reporter Carl Cameron said there was no reason to believe the Israeli government was implicated, but that "a classified top-secret investigation is underway".

[60][61] He was released on bail and engaged in a long battle to avoid extradition to the US[64] (in Namibia neither money laundering nor options backdating is a crime).

[66] In April 2010, Alexander won a victory in the Supreme Court of Namibia that allowed him to continue to live and work there until the extradition request was ruled upon.

[63] David Kreinberg cooperated with prosecutors, repaid $2.4 million to the SEC, and in 2011 was sentenced to the "time served" of the minimal period he had originally been in custody.

[7] A new CEO, Andre Dahan, came on board in April 2007[2][67] but the ongoing management crisis prevented the company from engaging in new innovation or entering new business areas.

[69] Because of the accounting issues from the option backdating, Comverse Technology was unable to file full or timely financial reports with the SEC.

[44] In early 2010, Comverse Technology planned to release an annual report with full financial statements and return to being fully listed on Nasdaq, but anticipated more layoffs.

[79] In October 2010, Comverse Technology agreed to sell its two-thirds ownership of its Ulticom subsidiary to a U.S. private equity firm for $90 million;[9] the deal closed in December 2010.

[7][80] In February 2011, the company announced that due to this effort, its report for fiscal 2009 would be delayed, and also that it was restructuring into four independent business units and focusing much of its emphasis on billing systems for mobile carriers.

[7] In April 2011, the company agreed to a $2.8 million settlement with the U.S. government over violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that had taken place between 2003 and 2005.

[84] During the first half of 2011, analysts such as Oppenheimer & Co., J.P. Morgan and Barclays said that with its accounting problems largely behind it, some restructuring done, and an improving cash balance and some revenue growth, Comverse Technology was well-positioned for ongoing operations or a possible sale.

[90] Revenues rose to $1.63 billion while the company's net loss was halved to $132.3 million, and the cash position was now stated as being sufficient to meet foreseeable needs.

[91] In April 2012, results for fiscal 2011 were announced; revenues remained flat at $1.59 billion while the company's net loss decreased again, to $58.7 million.

[12][93] Burdick said, "[The Verint] agreement, along with the planned spin-off of [Comverse Network Systems], will result in a tax efficient distribution to our shareholders and direct ownership in two independent, well-capitalized publicly-traded companies.