Telstra has bought Melbourne-based cloud technology consulting firm Versent for $267.5 million as the telco giant looks to further grow its professional services arm.
In an update to the market on Wednesday, Telstra confirmed it had acquired Versent and its subsidiary Stax, a self-serve cloud management platform.
Versent was founded in 2014 and now has more than 500 employees in offices in Australia, Singapore and the US. All of these staff will be staying on, a Versent spokesperson has confirmed.
The company offers tech consultancy with a focus on cloud-based services, along with security, data, digital and identity.
The move will expand Telstra Purple, the telecommunications giant’s consulting and professional services branch which was launched in 2019.
“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 Group Executive David Burns said.
“We see strong synergies between Versent and Telstra Purple in our customer base, our strategic partners, our team cultures and the way we tackle customer problems with technology solutions.
“And like Telstra Purple, Versent also has an international presence, particularly in south-east Asia, which provides significant potential to grow sales of international and Australia-out digital transformation services.”
Versent reported net revenue of $130 million in the last financial year, and a 17 per cent compound annual growth rate from 2020 to 2023. The company is currently owned by a mix of its founders, investors and employees.
The company has been on the hunt for a buyer for several months, and appointed Goldman Sachs to oversee this process at the end of last year.
Versent chief executive Paul Miglorini said the acquisition will help the team work with customers on a larger scale.
“Versent was founded on a belief that the way technology services were delivered needed to fundamentally change,” Miglorini said.
“One principle has governed all our activity, that success for Versent is solely a function of our customers’ success. We’ve used this principle to underpin our focus on investing in engineering depth, craft, innovation and a culture that enables the best engineering talent to thrive.
“Versent is known in the market for providing deep, trusted technical expertise with a commitment to customer outcomes through long-term partnership and alongside Telstra Purple we can achieve greater scale with a consistent growth pipeline, particularly expanding our international presence.”
The move will see Telstra further scale up its tech services arm.
“We’re excited by the growth potential this acquisition provides - it will further differentiate Telstra in the market and bolster our capabilities so that we can be the end-to-end technology partner our customers need now and in the future,” Burns said.
Telstra also acquired Internet of Things-focused company Alliance Automation and tech and telecommunications infrastructure solutions provider Aqura Technologies at the start of last year.
The Versent deal is expected to reach completion within six weeks.
