Deutsche Telekom to take over Strato

Deutsche Telekom will take over the webhosting provider Strato from the telecommunications company Freenet. A contract will be signed today in Berlin with Freenet AG on the acquisition of 100 percent of its shares in Strato AG and Strato Rechenzentrum AG. The companies’ supervisory boards approved the plan. The transaction is yet to be approved by the competition authorities.

“This step boosts our position on the highly interesting market for hosting solutions,” said Niek Jan van Damme, Member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom for fixed-network and mobile business in Germany. “Strato complements our activities in the hosting area perfectly and will make a positive contribution to net profit and free cash flow from the very first day of consolidation,” said van Damme.

The transaction will make Deutsche Telekom number two for webhosting products in Germany. Strato’s products, which include e-mail, websites, blogs, and online shops as well as data storage services on physical and virtual servers, are primarily aimed at consumers and small business cus-tomers. The Berlin-based company operates around 4 million hosted do-mains and employs 502 staff.