08 April 2018

GEFCO Group needed a network to support its many operational sites which manage the daily departure and arrival of goods on trucks and trains.

GTT Communications is proposing to acquire independent fibre and cloud networking platform provider Interoute for around €1.9bn (£1.6bn/$2.3bn) in cash.

The combination will expand GTT’s Tier 1 global IP network with Interoute’s fibre European fibre footprint that is said to include more than 400 points of presence, spanning 24 metro areas and interconnecting 126 cities across 29 countries.

It will also add 15 data centres, 17 virtual data centres and 51 colo facilities to GTT’s portfolio, as well as more than 1,000 strategic enterprise and carrier clients, primarily headquartered in Europe. The company says that the deal will also expand its SD-WAN capabilities.

GTT expects to complete the integration later this year. Company spokesperson Randy Slack says: “GTT will determine any proposed workforce changes post-transaction close, after consultation with Interoute management and employees, and in compliance with local legislation.

“Until the deal has completed, the Interoute management and board structures will remain unchanged. On completion, Interoute will become part of GTT. The company will be led by Rick Calder, GTT president and CEO, and his appointed executive team.”

In separate news announced in mid-March, GEFCO Group will use Interoute as part of its aim to grow network capacity and quality of service. 

Specialising in industrial and automotive logistics, France headquartered GEFCO’s global presence spans 300 locations in major cities, rural and industrial areas.

Philippe Ellec, the group’s head of IT operations and infrastructures, explains that the hybrid architecture of the company’s previous network had become outdated and was prone to incidents. “As our demand for bandwidth grew, we had to start prioritising our traffic flows. Today, we rely on the network to inform our customers in real-time, we do more data analysis and use more collaborative tools. We needed one or more network partners to support us across all our European sites.”

GEFCO chose to work with a combination of local best of breed providers and Interoute. Working with local operators, Interoute set up resilient MPLS links in 120 locations in 18 European countries, connected with its SDN core.