PLDT acquires data center firm, expands IT portfolio

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has acquired the country’s local data center operator as the group eyes the expansion of its enterprise information technology service portfolio.

In a statement yesterday, PLDT said its wholly owned unit ePLDT had signed a deal to acquire IP Converge Data Services Inc. from the IPVG group, which is divesting from its technology assets to diversify into more profitable businesses.

“Our investment in IP Converge allows us to complete our multi-tiered data center product suite and expand our cloud solutions business,” PLDT president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno said in a statement. “With the combined capacity of our data centers reaching about 2,000 racks, we are strongly positioned to service the growing data center and business solutions requirements of both large- and medium-sized businesses moving forward.”

IP Converge owns and operates two data centers in Metro Manila, one in the Makati Central Business District and another in Taguig’s Bonifacio Global City.

The company provides enterprises with managed data services and cloud-based business solutions across a wide-range of industries including IT solutions providers, gaming companies, e-learning and healthcare.

IP Converge is also the country’s only Salesforce.com cloud alliance partner, providing Salesforce customer relations management or CRM licenses and consulting services to client businesses.

Nazareno said IP Converge’s data center assets would add to PLDT’s existing data center infrastructure, operating under the Vitro brand.  PLDT, through Vitro, has data centers in Pasig, Cebu and Subic.

IP Converge used to be a subsidiary of IP Converge Data Center Inc., which listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2010.