Verizon to buy Terremark for $1.4 billion
Verizon Communications Inc. is set to buy Terremark Worldwide Inc., an information technology services company, for $1.4 billion, part of an effort by the wireless carrier to boost its cloud-computing abilities.
Verizon offered $19 a share in cash — a 35% premium over Terremark’s closing stock price Thursday of $14.05 a share.
Terremark is a Miami-based firm that operates server banks used for Web hosting, cloud computing and IT security services to “some of the world’s largest companies and U.S. government agencies” such as BMW and H&R Block. It runs 13 data centers in the U.S., Europe and Latin America.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Terremark said it accepted Verizon’s offer. Verizon said in a statement that it expects to finalize the purchase of Terremark in the first three months of the year.
In buying Terremark, Verizon hopes to “deliver business intelligence and collaboration services to anyone, anywhere and on any device,” Lowell McAdam, Verizon’s president and chief operating officer, said in a statement.
“Cloud computing continues to fundamentally alter the way enterprises procure, deploy and manage IT resources, and this combination helps create a tipping point for ‘everything-as-a-service,’ ” McAdam said.
