PCCW on the lookout for more deals to drive IT services expansion
After revenue of HK$3.59 billion last year, PCCW Solutions unit has secured orders worth HK$5.38 billion
PCCW, the flagship company of media and telecommunications tycoon Richard Li Tzar-kai, is on the hunt for mergers and acquisitions to expand its information-technology services business across Asia this year.
“They could be smaller or bigger than [PCCW’s investment last year in US company] Vuclip. It all depends on the opportunity and the target,” PCCW group managing director Bangalore Gangaiah Srinivas told the South China Morning Post on Thursday.
“We’re now focused on growing [information technology services arm] PCCW Solutions after making that [Vuclip] investment for PCCW Media.”
PCCW agreed to acquire controlling interest in Vuclip for an undisclosed sum in March last year as its PCCW Media unit expanded into the so-called over-the-top (OTT) video services market.
OTT applications, such as Netflix, deliver movies, television shows and other video content over the internet, bypassing traditional commercial distribution via terrestrial broadcast, cable or satellite network operators.
Based in California’s Silicon Valley, Vuclip was operating a mobile video-on-demand service in 10 markets that include India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt prior to the PCCW acquisition.