One of the world’s largest TelCo. companies, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT)’s subsidiary NTT Communications & Arkadin announced this week that the former would acquire a %91.2 stake in the latter, an amount that would cost NTT Communications 350 Milion Euros, according to LeMonde. Today, Arkadin is known notably for its audio, web, and video conferencing solution. Arkadin CEO Olivier de Puymorin, pictured above, is said to be resting at the head of the company.
Founded in 2001, Arkadin’s headquarters will remain in Paris as it continues to service its 37,000 customer is 32 countries, up from 25,000 customers in the one year since AXA Private Equity bought a 45% stake in the company in July 2012.
In Japon, NTT competes with the likes of KDDI & Softbank, the latter of which overtook NTT this past may after a surge in stock pricing, likely related to its recent decision to purchase the 3rd largest US TelCo. company Sprint & Clearwise for $21.6 Billion. As pointed out in the Financial Times this past month, NTT has been eyeing overseas acquisitions opportunities in order to keep up with Softbank’s international expansion, as the two realize that the battle will not be fought in Tokyo, but on the web all over the world.
We wrote about NTT & Softbank’s renewed appetite for Europe last November after the former purchased the Itlaian Buongiorno & the latter purchased the French Alpha Direct Services.
This acquisition represents yet another 9-digit tech acquisition in France this year – Adobe acquired marketing technology company Neolane for $600 Million a few months back – both companies having been founded in 2001, within 12 months of the dot-com bubble burst.