Network M&A: GTT Buys Inteliquent’s Data Network

Inteliquent has found itself a buyer for its Tier 1 IP and Ethernet network, and that buyer is none other than GTT.  GTT had already taken the step of building its own MPLS/IP network via the acquisitions of nLayer and PacketExchange in the past several years, moving forward from the ranks of resellers to join the network operators.  With this purchase, they have vaulted themselves all the way into the top 10 transit backbones worldwide – #5 actually according to the Renesys rankings at the end of 2012.

Inteliquent’s network was formerly known as Tinet, and before that it was the Tiscali International Network, and they bought it back in 2010 for the price of $111.5M.  They won’t get that much for it this time though, as GTT will be paying $52.5M plus $2.0M in services over two years.  The transit business has always been a tough neighborhood, and that hasn’t changed since Tinet struck out on its own in 2009 under the wings of private equity.  As part of Inteliquent, it expanded from mainly IP services into Ethernet, taking advantage of its NNIs in hard to reach places worldwide.

However, the last year  has been tough for Inteliquent as a whole, and it has been clear since October that the company might sell part or all of itself as it figures out where to go from here.  I’ve gotten to know some of the folks that run the former Tinet over the years here at Telecom Ramblings, and and I hope that their new corporate home will be a comfortable one – though I’m sure there will be some integration work along the way.  Inteliquent had big plans, but the fit was never a completely natural one and in the end it didn’t accomplish what they’d hoped.

It’s a done deal, having closed on April 30.  GTT seems like an interesting new owner for this network, we will have to see just where they intend to take it.  The network they’re buying did some $69.5M in revenue last year, which gives the combined company an annual run-rate of around $180M.

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Categories: Internet Backbones · Mergers and Acquisitions