MTN completes purchase of Verizon Business SA
MTN has announced the acquisition of Verizon Business South Africa, and from 1 March 2009, Verizon Business South Africa began trading as MTN Business. This follows the unconditional approval of the transaction from the Competition Tribunal earlier this year.
Verizon Business South Africa, part of US-based Verizon Communications Inc, is an established South Africa-headquartered ISP providing connectivity services to corporate customers in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Kenya.
The acquisition of 100% of the local business complements the mobile operator's existing investment in MTN Network Solutions and will expand its ability to deliver mobile and internet-based data services to multi-national corporate clients across the continent, both existing and new.
"This acquisition falls in line with our stated objectives of expanding our communications service offerings, particularly to corporate customers, outside of just mobile services," says Tim Lowry, MD of MTN SA.
The acquisition follows similar acquisitions made by the group in Nigeria, Cameroon, Cyprus and Cote d'Ivoire.
Staff from Verizon Business South Africa will significantly bolster the skills pool of MTN in the voice and data convergence space, an area greatly affected by the existing skills shortage in South Africa. The deal will expand data and internet offerings in the aforementioned regions, to meet the company's strategic geographic and services expansion objectives. In addition, the mobile operator says it will now be able to offer existing clients the opportunity to holistically expand and upgrade their existing voice and data infrastructures.
"We believe MTN Business is optimally positioned as a full-service business communications provider of choice for the African continent," says Lowry.
"We are now able to offer end-to-end communications solutions for our multi-national corporate clients operating across the continent. Our ultimate goal is to become the trusted communications solution partner for all our customers, and this acquisition is a significant step in the right direction."
