Verizon Acquires Managed Infrastructure and Cloud Provider TerreMark Worldwide

Verizon has made no secret of its intentions to rely on cloud delivery
to boost revenue tied to technology solutions. Yesterday, the telecommunications
giant tendered a sweet $1.4 billion offer to Terremark Worldwide, a managed IT
infrastructure and cloud service provider, with the aim to strengthen and "accelerate" its current cloud strategy.

The deal, which pays a 35 percent premium on Terremark’s closing price
on Thursday, was unanimously approved by the Terremark board.

Over the past year, Verizon has focused on forging partnerships meant
to strengthen its cloud-based delivery of a variety of technology solutions.
From its announcement with SAP’s Sybase to deliver managed mobile
services to laying out its plans to
provide security solutions through the cloud in May, Verizon has had its eyes set
on capturing a chunk of the cloud market that has previously been dominated by
AT&T.

"The key element is that Verizon is building a presence based on market leading
technologies.  Terremark builds on Verizon’s technology and should help
Verizon’s strategic services grow faster than AT&T over the next several years," says Gerard Hallaren a senior analyst at Avian Securities. 

Terremark and Verizon have been working together for quite some time,
perhaps taking a trial run on what an acquisition may look like. In 2010,
Verizon started selling Terremark’s hosting services and struck a deal to rent
out 25,000 feet in the cloud provider’s data centers.

"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,’"  Verizon President and COO Lowell McAdam said in a 
statement. "Our collective vision will foster innovation, enhance
business processes and dynamically deliver business intelligence and
collaboration services to anyone, anywhere and on any device."

The tender offer is expected to commence in mid-February, and Verizon
hopes to close the deal by the end of Q1 this year.  Terremark focuses in delivering on-demand
solutions to both enterprise and government customers around the globe.

Verizon says that it plans to keep the well-recognized Terremark brand,
and its management team, while operating the new unit as a wholly owned
subsidiary.