Colt accelerates customer reach with $1.8B Lumen EMEA acquisition
Colt Technology Services has acquired Lumen’s EMEA business for $1.8 billion. The deal's closure is the final stage in Colt’s exclusive agreement with Lumen Technologies to purchase Lumen’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business.
By completing this acquisition, Colt says it will have more resources to provide greater choice and expansive global capabilities to enterprises. It elevates Colt to one of the world’s largest business-to-business-only telecom operators.
Keri Gilder will remain Colt’s CEO, supported by a skilled, diverse executive leadership team.
As part of the acquisition, Colt and Lumen Technologies will enter into a partnership agreement that sees businesses in North America benefit from access to Colt’s digital infrastructure and services within and outside of North America.
“Closing this acquisition brings us to a momentous point in our growth journey and marks our deep commitment to our customers, helping them scale and grow,” Gilder said. “It brings us amazing new talent, extends our technology portfolio and partner ecosystem, and significantly expands our digital infrastructure as we enter new markets across Eastern Europe, the UAE and parts of Africa.”
Wide-ranging assets
Customers will benefit from Colt’s existing suite of technologies featuring On Demand and SD-WAN in addition to an extended portfolio of new services, including new security technologies, SASE products, managed hosting and professional services and other assets, including:
· 1,300 new customer-focused employees across 16 countries
· 1,630,031 kilometers of fiber connecting 125 European cities in 34 EMEA countries
· 11,000 kilometers of metropolitan network in 23 countries and the UAE
· 12 cable landing stations in six countries
· ten subsea cable systems - six transatlantic and four within Europe
The acquisition – which brings Colt 2,700 customers, including blue chip corporations, leading enterprises and public sector customers--sees Colt expand the reach of its services via PoPs (Points of Presence) in Dubai, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Kenya, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa and Turkey.
Multi-site business appeal
The acquisition closes as Colt’s latest brand research highlights businesses’ plans to extend their digital infrastructure outside their existing markets.
When it surveyed 1,100 senior IT decision-makers across APAC, Europe and the US, Colt found 44% planned to extend their digital infrastructure to Europe and 40% to APAC.
Over one in three (35%) plan to extend it to the Americas, 29% to the Middle East, and almost one in four (24%) plan to expand their network to Africa.
“Colt has always been relentless about delivering brilliant experiences to business customers," said Camille Mendler, chief analyst of enterprise services for Omdia. "That mission has now gained wider global scale at a critical time.”
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Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategies of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report across their websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products.