Time Warner Cable's (NYSE: TWC-WI) move to purchase cloud and data center service provider NaviSite illustrates that the traditional telcos aren't the only ones that want to gain a strong foothold in the burgeoning cloud services market.
Under the terms of the agreement, Time Warner Cable will acquire NaviSite for $230 million.
When the deal is complete in the second quarter, Time Warner's business unit, Time Warner Cable Business Class, will instantly gain a large presence in the managed services market by adding NaviSite's enterprise-class hosting, managed application, messaging and cloud services to its service portfolio. In addition, Time Warner will gain 1,200 NaviSite customers.
Glenn Britt, Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Cable, said that "NaviSite provides us with a successful managed services business and a new, innovative managed cloud platform representing significant new growth opportunities," adding that they "expect to build upon NaviSite's successful enterprise-class offerings, and their operational capabilities, infrastructure and expertise to more rapidly create a robust managed services offering for small and medium sized businesses."
The cable operator's move into the managed services market reflects a move by the cable industry to provide necessary differentiators as they advance their presence in not only the SMB, but also larger business market. Fellow MSOs like Cox Business have been expanding their presence in the hosting market, but also offering a suite of managed business services including managed security, managed online storage and commercial e-mail.
Outside of the cable industry, Time Warner's move is likely a move to also battle the telco's own growing data center and managed service drive as seen by Verizon's recent agreement to acquire data center operator Terremark Worldwide.
For more:
- see the release
- CED has this article
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