BT buys Comsat

U.K. telcom giant BT is acquiring satellite and terrestrial data communications provider Comsat, giving BT a major presence in Latin America and boosting its ability to serve multinationals operating in that region as well as cater to the regional business base.

The Virginia-based Comsat has 700 employees, that BT and access to 15 markets in Central and South America as well as a roster of 2000 existing customers. BT said it would fold Comsat into its Global Services group, but it did not say how much it would pay for the acquisition. Reuters reported that the deal would be around U.K. £100 million (U.S. $200 million).

The deal is BT’s 18^th acquisition in two years, many of which have been companies with international presence. BT acquired U.S.-based Infonet in February of 2006 for £965 million and recently expanded into Italy with the acquisition of I.Net. BT is increasingly depending on its global operations to grow the company as its legacy landline business in the U.K. slides.