Euro Network M&A: Digi Buys Invitel’s Retail, SMB Biz

In the US, just about every acquirer is busy closing deals or integrating assets right now.  But there is M&A activity going on in places we don’t hear from often.  Over in eastern Europe yesterday, Digi has agreed to acquire the SMB and retail business of the Hungarian provider Invitel.

Digi Távközlési, which is controlled by the Romanian-Hungarian entrepreneur  Zoltán Teszári, will be gaining some heft in the Hungarian market.  Meanwhile, Invitel will refocus its business model on the IT and telecommunications side of things under the Invitech Solutions name from here on out.  The two will be each others customers for IT and network services.

Invitel was bought by the China-CEE Fund earlier this year for $240M, and Digi is buying a big chunk of it for $170M.  What’s left does about $160M in annual revenue at present, and Invitech Solutions says it plans to double that by broadening its IT scope and national optical network, possibly via further M&A.

Eastern European infrastructure is a different world from the US or western Europe, a place global providers have, from my perspective, seemed generally unsure about committing resources beyond adding a PoP here or there through a partner.

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Categories: Mergers and Acquisitions