Telstra acquires biz solutions provider Damovo

The move comes despite recent media reports indicating Optus had outbid the telecommunications heavyweight for the deal.

Damovo is a provider of customer premises equipment (CPE), covering brands such as Ericsson, NEC, Nortel, Fujitsu, Mitel, Cisco, Siemens and Alcatel. The company also resells PABX and IP enabled PABX products, according to Telstra, and also provides call centre solutions.

Telstra said it hopes to further its position in the "fast growing IP CPE sector" with the acquisition.

Telstra business and government group managing director, David Thodey, said the new acquisition positions Telstra with "additional capability to provide PABX services as a part of an integrated telecommunication solution" along with other voice and call centre services.

"Additionally, as businesses consider IP in the coming years, Damovo will give us significant CPE maintenance and product capability alongside our industry leading IP networks and applications such as telephony and multi-media," he said.

Telstra cites research group Frost and Sullivan stating that "IP PABX is expected to make up more than 50 percent of the CPE market from the current 35 percent by 2007".

The completion of the transaction is subject to some contractual conditions, according to Telstra, which it expects to have settled within the coming weeks.