Japan's NTT to buy South African IT firm Dimension Data

Japanese telecom giant NTT will acquire South African information technology firm Dimension Data for 2.1 billion British pounds (3.2 billion US dollars), both companies said in a statement Thursday.

The deal would help Japan's top telecom operator to crack into the fast-growing African market for mobile phone and IT services.

The boards of directors of both Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) and Dimension Data Holdings unanimously recommended the all-cash offer for 100 percent of the shares, the companies said.

The firms said they "share the common vision to create new services and values to succeed in the coming age of cloud computing," where clients access data and programmes online rather than keep them on their hard drives.

NTT president and CEO Satoshi Miura said: "We are delighted that the board of directors of Dimension Data has unanimously agreed to support our offer".

Dimension Data, founded in 1983, has 11,500 employees and more than 6,000 clients. Its stock has been traded on the London and Johannesburg bourses.

While NTT focuses mainly on Asia, as well as Europe and the United States, Dimension Data also covers Africa, the Middle East and Australia.

"In this time of revolutionary change, Dimension Data and NTT aim to establish an unrivalled leadership position by taking advantage of our complementary relationship" and developing cloud computing-compatible services, the companies said.

NTT expect to complete the acquisition by the end of October.

(c) 2010 AFP