NTT Com Scoops Up e-shelter In Euro Data Centre Play

Japan’s NTT Communications has sealed the deal on its purchase of European data centre services provider e-shelter, acquiring an 86.7 percent stake in the German company.

The purchase boosts NTT Com’s data centre floor space in Europe to 92,000 square metres across nine cities, up from just shy of 20,000 square metres in four cities.

Penny Jones, senior analyst at 451 Research, told TechWeekEurope that the acquisition shows demand has been strong in Germany for NTT Com.

“Furthermore, e-shelter provides NTT with a ready-made support and sales structure in a German-speaking country,” said Jones.

Third position

According to NTT Com itself, the acquisition puts it into the number three position for data centre space in Europe.

“e-shelter is a growing company offering high-quality, highly extensible data centre capabilities,” boasted NTT Com CEO Akira Arima. “We have been impressed by their ability, under the strong leadership of CEO Rupprecht Rittweger, to maintain their position as a leading data center operator not only in Germany, but the competitive EU market as a whole.”

e-shelter was founded in 2000, with data centres in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich, as well as in Vienna, Austria and Zurich, Switzerland.

The deal, first announced in March, goes through for £539m. e-shelter’s CEO Rupprecht Rittweger said that selling out to NTT Com is the best buy to ensure its future success.

Rittweger said: “To meet their demands ahead of our competitors, we believe that the best way to ensure e-shelter’s growth and development is in partnership with NTT Com, which has a presence in Asia and is a leading provider of ICT services worldwide. At the same time, we look forward to strengthening NTT Com’s global ICT infrastructure and market share with our strong presence in Europe.”

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