Interoute in Agreement to Acquire UK Network Provider Easynet

Managed service provider Easynet (MDNX) has today been acquired by industry rival Interoute for an enterprise value of £402 million, which will give the merged group access to a “full suite of the combined companies products and services“.

The official press release doesn’t offer a lot of detail, except for the two comments pasted below, although Easynet has revealed a little bit more information as part of a general email to their ISP and networking related customers in the United Kingdom.

Apparently the transaction will not complete until sometime during October 2015 and in the meantime the two organisations “will continue to run as independent businesses“. Interoute also assured customers that they would “work extremely hard to ensure this acquisition will not affect the services and support you currently receive.”

Mark Thompson, CEO of Easynet, said:

“I believe this acquisition will bring great benefits to both Interoute’s and Easynet’s customers. The combined companies can offer broader and deeper connectivity options, as well as an expanded portfolio of products and services, and the acquisition will further expand an already market-leading cloud hosting capability in Europe.”

Gareth Williams, Interoute’s CEO, added:

“These are exciting times for Interoute and our customers as we create a leading, independent European ICT provider. It’s the next step in our acquisition strategy and moves us much closer to our goal of being the provider of choice to Europe’s digital economy.”

It’s perhaps worth pointing out that Easynet was one of the first operators to deploy an unbundled (LLU) broadband and phone network in the United Kingdom and they were later snapped up by Sky Broadband in 2005. Sky eventually sold the bulk of Easynet to private equity firm Lloyds Development Capital (LDC) in 2010 for a cool £100m.

As part of the 2010 deal Sky and LDC entered into a long-term supply agreement, which granted Easynet Global Services continued access to the Sky’s national fibre network in the UK and this helped to support the Sky Broadband and Sky Talk services. Sky also continued to be a business customer of Easynet.

In December 2013 Easynet was acquired again, this time by the MDNX Group that eventually centralised itself under a single Easynet brand.