Esat Telecom Group Acquires EUnet Ireland
DUBLIN, Nov. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Esat Telecom Group (Nasdaq: ESATY - news) today announced that it has acquired
EUnet Ireland, the Internet Business Solutions Provider.
The acquisition of EUnet Ireland, which was finalized today, will allow Esat Telecom Group to provide a full range of
Internet-related services as part of its product portfolio.
EUnet Ireland was established in 1991 as Ireland's first Internet Services Provider and provides Internet solutions to the
corporate market. The company employs 27 people.
''Esat Telecom's local, national and international fiber optic links, which are now under construction, will provide an ideal
platform to offer integrated Internet services through the acquisition of EUnet Ireland. We will now be in a position to offer a
full telecom's solution, including Internet services, to corporate customers,'' said Mr. Denis O'Brien, Chairman, Esat Telecom
Group.
The first section of Esat Telecom's wholly fiber optic Dublin City Network recently went live and provides a wide range of
telecom's solutions including managed bandwith services, business voice services and, for the first time in Ireland, broadband
LAN interconnect. ATM, frame relay and disaster recovery will be made available through the network shortly.
Commenting on the acquisition, Mr. David Mee, Managing Director of EUnet Ireland said: ''As the only independent Internet
Services Provider dedicated to servicing the corporate Internet services market, we cannot think of a more suitable partner
than Esat Telecom to launch us into the exciting area of integrated voice and data services. There is a remarkable synergy
between both the products and services that we offer and the way that we do business: putting the customer first. As a
company that has achieved very rapid growth over the past eighteen months, we are looking forward to even greater success
within Esat Telecom Group.''
Esat Telecom Group, of which ESat Telecom is a wholly owned subsidiary, is also a 45% shareholder in Esat Digifone,
Ireland's second GSM mobile phone operator. Earlier this month, Esat Telecom Group raised $78 million through an initial
public offering of 6,000,000 American Depositary Shares in the U.S. and international markets.
Esat Telecom currently offers international and inland long distance voice and fax services to Irish companies. The company
now has more than 3,000 corporate customers and employs 177 people at offices in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford,
Galway, and Ardee.
EUnet Ireland is an affiliate of EUnet, along with 26 other European Internet Service Providers covering 42 countries.
Established in 1982, EUnet is the largest Internet Service Provider in Europe. |
