PLDT unit acquires cloud services, data center of IPVentures

MANILA, Philippines - A unit of dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has acquired the data center and cloud services business of publicly-held IP Ventures Inc. (IPVI).

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), PLDT said its wholly-owned subsidiary ePLDT Inc. entered into a sale and purchase agreement with IPVI regarding the purchase of the 100 percent of the issued and outstanding capital stock of IP Converge Data Services Inc. (IPCDSI).

PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno said in a statement that the investment in IPCDSI would allow the dominant carrier to complete its multi-tiered data center product suite and expand its cloud solutions business.

“With the combined capacity of our data centers reaching about 2,000 racks, we are strongly positioned to service the growing data center and business solutions requirements of both large- and medium-sized businesses going forward,” he said.

IPCDSI owns and operates two Internet data centers in the country and provides enterprises with managed data services and cloud-based business solutions across a wide range of industries including IT solutions providers, gaming companies, e-learning and healthcare. 

 It is the country’s first and only Salesforce.com Cloud Alliance Partner providing Salesforce CRM licenses and consulting services to businesses. It is also the country’s premier Google Enterprise Partner, allowing local organizations to adopt a cloud computing mindset and to ThinkOutCloud.

On the other hand, PLDT executive vice president and head of enterprise and international and carrier business Ernesto Alberto said the VITRO network of data centers of PLDT located in Pasig, Cebu, and Subic are purpose-built, industrial- strength data centers that leverages on the group’s robust telecommunications infrastructure.

The network provides redundant and high-capacity connectivity nationwide and overseas.

“Combining the reach of the PLDT network, the strength of PLDT VITRO’s data infrastructure and IPCDSI’s data center footprints and partnerships with major technology and cloud players, PLDT sustains its leadership position as the best in class ICT solutions across the wide spectrum of our enterprise business portfolio, from SMEs to the larger local corporate and multinationals,” Alberto said.

IPVI chief executive officer Enrique Gonzalez welcomed the agreement entered into by the company with the country’s biggest telecommunication provider.

“We see this agreement with PLDT as a major milestone for the Company. PLDT brings tremendous strategic value to the table. With the extensive synergies between PLDT and IPDCSI, IPDCSI will have greater business scalability which will drive growth across all of its business segments,” Gonzalez said.