Comcast Business to gain international scale with Masergy acquisition

• Comcast Business is already a major enterprise services player in the US
• It wants to better support customers with international sites
• Masergy gives it international scale and SD-WAN, managed security expertise

In an effort to better service US enterprise customers that have operations outside North America, Comcast Business has struck a deal to acquire Masergy for an unspecified sum. 

Masergy, a long-time expert on software-defined networking, provides Managed SD-WAN, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), Call Center as a Service (CCaaS) and Managed Security solutions to more than 1,400 companies in 100 countries. The company doesn’t reveal its financials, but its annual revenues a few years ago were in the $300-350 million range and it has been growing, announcing earlier this year its best ever half-year performance in terms of bookings growth.

“Masergy provides a perfect complement to our portfolio of enterprise services and solutions and will allow us to instantly and dramatically amplify our growth in the global enterprise market,” stated Bill Stemper, President at Comcast Business, which has found much of its success to date with smaller business customers. “We’re excited to welcome Masergy’s employees and leadership to Comcast Business as we bring continued innovation and superior experience to our customers.” 

The move, which is still subject to regulatory approval, will position Comcast Business, already a formidable player with recent second quarter revenues of $2.2 billion, as more of a competitor to the likes of Verizon Business, Lumen, AT&T, Orange Business Services, Colt, NTT, BT and other international enterprise service providers.

Gary Barton, Principal Enterprise Technology and Services Analyst at GlobalData, is positive about the move. “This is a very smart acquisition by Comcast Business. Masergy has been one of the most disruptive players in the market for more than a decade. It has intelligently designed its software-defined networking infrastructure and developed an attractive collaboration services portfolio. However, much of its success has been generated by its flexible approach to customer service in terms of commercial models and service delivery,” noted Barton in this statement about the deal. 

The analyst also expects that Comcast Business will put its financial weight behind the Masergy operations, which will retain the Masergy brand. “Comcast Business has already invested more than $15 billion since 2017 in its telecoms assets. Bringing that level of spend to Masergy will create a potent force in the global telecoms market, with strong local presence in the US and the UK [where Comcast acquired Sky]. The challenge for Comcast will be to ensure that it does not stifle the flexibility and creativity that has underpinned Masergy’s recent success,” noted Barton.

For further details on the deal, see this press release.

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV