Dutch operator KPN is furthering its push to improve its financial performance by the end of 2014 with the acquisition of hosting company Argeweb.
Argeweb is one of the largest and most successful hosting companies in the Netherlands and provides services such as domain registration, Web hosting, hosted exchange and online storage services to SMEs.
KPN chose to make the deal with Argeweb as the company's focus matches KPN's ambition to realise strong growth in the corporate market for cloud and hosting services.
"Argeweb is one of the largest and most successful hosting companies in the Netherlands," explained John van Vianen, CEO at KPN Business Market. "Through the acquisition we increase our market position and scale in this fast growing market."
Argeweb Amsio Group--the sister company of Argeweb that provides cloud storage and resells Microsoft Azure cloud services--has not been purchased by KPN, but the telco is collaborating with Argeweb Amsio Group to provide access to Microsoft Azure cloud services to KPNs business customers.
KPN's CEO, Eelco Blok, said at the end of July that the company's strong focus on high-quality services through best-in-class networks and products such as LTE, IPTV, and cloud services, supported the uptake of multi-play propositions by consumers and businesses. The company gained 53,000 new postpaid consumer customers and 16,000 business customers in the second quarter of 2014.
The company's adjusted revenue was 7 per cent lower year on year in the second quarter at €1.98 billion ($2.65 billion), in part due to competition on the mobile market. Adjusted EBITDA fell by 19 per cent year-on-year as a result of the declining revenue, reaching €633 million.
Former Dutch Minister of Finance, Jan Kees de Jager, was announced as KPN's new CFO from Nov. 1, replacing Steven van Schilfgaarde who has been interim CFO since last September. De Jager joined the board of the operator on Aug. 15 and will work alongside van Schilfgaarde until November.
KPN said it intends to implement a new management structure following the sale of its German unit, E-Plus, to Telefónica Deutschland. The operator said the management board would assume more direct control of operations by creating two new positions, chief commercial officer and chief operating officer, alongside the existing positions of CEO and CFO.
For more:
- see this KPN release
- see this Telecom Paper article
- see this Total Telecom article
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