Euro Fiber M&A: Viatel Finds a Home at Digiweb

Europe’s networking community got a bit of consolidation today, as one of the last fiber orphans of the dot com era found a new home at last. Viatel and its VTLWaveNet division have joined the Digiweb Group.

Viatel has been owned mostly by Morgan Stanley, and after selling off its other pieces mostly just has its Western-European conduit and fiber network left which it operates under the VTLWaveNet brand. The company has been stubbornly moving forward with those assets for many years, but Morgan Stanley has finally made up its mind and they’re rolling their investment into the Digiweb Group along with some additional equity.

Ireland’s Digiweb operates a managed services and MPLS/data network in the UK and Belgium. The acquisition of Viatel will mark a substantial boost in their asset base, giving them intercity fiber and conduit into some 34 cities, 12 of which with metro fiber assets as well. Viatel’s CEO Lucy Woods will join the board of directors, while Digiweb’s Colm Piercy will stay at the helm of Digiweb Group.

Digiweb sees further network consolidation opportunities in Europe, and hopes to use the combination of their own assets and Viatel’s fiber infrastructure as a consolidation platform. The combined company will apparently generate annual profits of $10M on $78M revenues and has about 200 employees.

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Categories: Fiber Networks · Mergers and Acquisitions