Telstra on Thursday completed its US$697 million acquisition of submarine cable operator Pacnet.
The Australian incumbent said in a statement that Pacnet will be fully integrated into Telstra and the Pacnet brand "progressively retired." The company said it will continue to develop Pacnet’s PBS joint venture in China, where it is licensed to operate IP VPN and data centre services in most major provinces.
Telstra is still waiting for regulatory approval for the deal from U.S. authorities, upon which it will inte grate Pacnet’s U.S. assets. The greenlight from the U.S. "is expected in due course and does not impact operations or the agreed purchase price," said Telstra.
"The completed acquisition will double Telstra’s customers in Asia and greatly increase our network reach and data centre capabilities across the region," said Brendon Riley, Telstra group executive for global enterprise and services.
Indeed, Pacnet’s 46,000-kilometre cable network extends from India to the U.S. It also boasts 109 PoPs. The Singapore-and-Hong Kong-headquartered company also operates 29 interconnected data centres in 17 cities in Asia-Pacific, and serves around 2,400 enterprises and 220 retail and wholesale telcos.
"The addition of Pacnet’s staff, infrastructure, technology and expertise will position Telstra as a leading provider of services to multinational and large companies in Asia," said Riley.
"The acquisition provides us greater specialisation and scale, including the delivery of enhanced services, such as software-defined networking, and opens up significant incremental opportunities for our business," he said.
