Telstra buys Pacnet for $700m
Telstra is pushing forward with its bid to become a global enterprise services business with the acquisition of Asian telecommunications company Pacnet for $697 million.
The deal, which had been speculated last week, will double Telstra's presence in Asia, Telstra said on Tuesday.
Pacnet operates in 11 countries throughout Asia, Australia, the US, and the UK, with 815 employees. The company has an extensive fibre network, 109 points of presence in Asia, the US, the UK, and Australia, and 29 interconnected datacentres. The company boasts over 2,400 customers.
Telstra CEO David Thodey said that the acquisition of Pacnet will help drive Telstra's growth in the Asian region, as the company moves away from its traditional role as a telecommunications incumbent towards being a global technology company.
"Asia is an important part of our growth strategy. We believe this acquisition will help us become a leading provider of enterprise services to multinational companies and carriers in the region," Thodey said in a statement.
"The enterprise services market is evolving rapidly, and Pacnet will strengthen our networks, datacentres, and submarine network as well as boosting our service offerings and people capabilities."
Thodey said that with Pacnet, Telstra will have a greater scale and scope of products and infrastructure for its cloud, network, and security services.
"Our strategy is centred on serving enterprise and carrier customers doing business in Asia. We serve these customers by leveraging our strong connectivity foundation to offer a portfolio of integrated network applications and services solutions," he said.
The company has not detailed any potential job cuts as part of the acquisition, but Telstra said on Tuesday that the deal would "drive operational and cost synergies".
The deal is subject to regulatory and financier approval, and is expected to be completed in mid-2015.
It had been rumoured that Telstra's Indonesian partner Telekom Indonesia may have also been interested in acquiring Pacnet in 2012.