NTT to acquire 91.2% stake in Arkadin

NTT Communications today announced to acquire 91.2% in Arkadin. The three companies, NTT,Arkadin and AXA Private Equity have signed an agreement in this regard. The agreement will be implemented after the necessary notification and consultation with the relevant works council. The management of Arkadin will reinvest alongside NTT Com. The agreement remains subject to the authorization of the antitrust authorities.

"With the acquisition of one of the fastest growing players in the industry, NTT reaffirms its ambition to develop services in the collaboration business for all of its partners and clients across the world. Arkadin's global seamless customer service and infrastructure will strengthen NTT Com's offering in both global conferencing services and total solutions, incorporating unified communications," Toru Maruoka, Senior Vice President, Voice and Video, at NTT Com said.

Arkadin offers a wide range of conference-related solutions covering audio, web, video conferencing and unified communications services. It serves approximately 37,000 customers in 32 countries, including France, Germany, the UK, USA, Australia, China, Singapore and Japan.

AXA Private Equity is a private investor in Arkadin and they had made the investment in 2002,and Arkadin was founded in 2001.

To date, NTT Com's customers have been seeking to lower their costs and streamline operations by integrating internal communication tools with NTT Com's Arcstar Audio Conferencing, Arcstar Web Conferencing, Arcstar Video Conferencing and cloud-based Arcstar UCaaS unified communications service. NTT Com, under its Global Cloud Vision, is leveraging its strengths as a major telecom operator to deliver innovative Global Total ICT Outsourcing services that meet customers' total cloud-based and other ICT needs.

Olivier de Puymorin, CEO of Arkadin, commented: "I would like to thank François Jerphagnon, his team at AXA Private Equity, all the Private Equity funds and Friends & Family for their great support in helping to develop Arkadin since its inception. Now, Arkadin will enter a new development phase, with the support and industrial expertise of NTT Com, to continue to serve our clients and partners throughout the world."