Telstra acquires Versent for $267.5 million

Telstra is adding AWS services capabilities to its Telstra Purple business, via the $267.5 million acquisition of Melbourne-based Versent.

The carrier first confirmed its interest in the acquisition in September after it was reported in The Australian Financial Review.

At that time, Telstra told the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) the acquisition could be worth as much as $400 million.

In its announcement [pdf] to the ASX, Telstra said acquiring the consultancy would help scale its Telstra Purple business services, “drive NAS growth and support the digitisation of businesses and Australian industry.”

Telstra also said Versent offered “expertise across cloud, security, data, digital, and identity and access management.”

The acquisition also includes Versent subsidiary Stax, which provides an AWS cloud self-management platform.

“Versent will bring additional depth to our strong team of experts, help our enterprise customers maximise their investment in cloud-led transformations, and help us meet the growing demand for these specialised services,” Telstra Enterprise’s group executive David Burns said.

Versent reported net revenue of $130 million in the 2023 financial year and has a team of more than 500 staff.

The transaction is due to complete within six weeks.

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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