New Zealand’s Spark is on a small spending spree, announcing on Monday the acquisition of 70 MHz of unused 2.3-GHz spectrum and of IT and professional services company CCL.
The telco bought the spectrum from Craig Wireless and related entity Woosh Wireless for NZ$9 million, subject to various regulatory approvals.
"We were interested in this spectrum as it is complementary to our other spectrum holdings," said David Havercroft, chief operating officer of the firm’s IT business, Spark Connect.
The CCL deal, meanwhile, involved a slightly larger sum of money.
Spark has signed a conditional agreement to acquire Computer Concepts Limited (CCL) for NZ$50 million.
Spark said the deal will serve to extend its cloud and platform IT services offer.
"This acquisition builds on the earlier purchases of Revera and Appserv, and with CCL now in our group we are better positioned to assist New Zealand business needs in the areas of platform IT services and cloud computing," said Tim Miles, CEO of Spark’s business services arm Spark Digital.
"CCL is complementary to Spark Digital," Miles said. "Its acquisition also reinforces Spark Digital’s commitment to business in the South Island, following significant investment in a new data centre in Christchurch (Perimeter Road ), and a recent expansion of Spark’s Dunedin data centre."
Following the CCL acquisition, Spark will have 1,200 employees in the South Island.
CCL’s chief executive Andrew Allan also talked up the deal, noting that the backing of Spark will enable his company to accelerate growth.
"And importantly for our customers, CCL will retain its own unique way of working," Allan said. "Our customers should expect the same total commitment to their future success, with the added power of Spark New Zealand behind us."
