Panafrican News Agency

Liquid Telecoms acquires stake in Quattro Business Solutions

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Liquid Telecom, a subsidiary of Econet Global, owned by Zimbabwean telecom enterpreneur Strive Masiyiwa, said Thursday it had acquired a stake in Quattro Business Solutions (QBS), a major provider of digital services.

"The strategic acquisition of this international partner allows Liquid Telecom to increase the breadth of digital service offerings to local partners," Liquid Telecoms, which is registered in London, said.

Liquid Telecoms, which operates a fibre optic cable from Johannesburg to Cairo, announced the purchase of the Middle East and African operations of QBS, a leader in the fast-growing ecosystem of Microsoft Dynamics partners.

"The acquisition will allow Liquid Telecom to innovate and enhance its digital services offerings," Liquid Telecoms said in a statement.

QBS is an official indirect Cloud Solution Provider for Microsoft Dynamics and currently supports over 800 partners in 25 countries.

"This purchase gives Liquid Telecom the ability to be a well-rounded Microsoft partner, offering deep capability on Dynamics 365 in addition to Office 365 and Azure. “This acquisition is core to our strategy to deepen our cloud service offerings by bringing award-winning Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions to our digital ecosystem - enhancing the competitiveness of African enterprises at a global scale and is in line with our mission to build Africa’s digital future,” said David Behr, Group Chief Digital Officer at Liquid Telecom.

“We are thrilled about this acquisition and what it means for the future of Liquid Telecom. We will continue seeking out strategic partnerships that help us achieve our goal of building the continent’s digital future,” said Behr.

Liquid Telecom provides services across 13 countries in Eastern, Southern and South Africa. The services cover mobile operators, carriers, enterprise, media and content companies and retail customers with high-speed, reliable connectivity, hosting and co-location and digital services. Liquid Telecoms has built Africa’s largest independent fibre network, stretching more than 73,000km, and operates state-of-the-art data centres in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi, Harare and Kigali, with a combined potential 19,000 square metres of rack space and 78 MW of power, the firm said.

The company said businesses needed a diverse set of digital solutions to ensure they were successful in digitally transforming themselves.

With the QBS offering now added to its stable of digital solutions, Liquid Telecom has positioned itself as the digital service provider that will support its partners through a seamless digital transformation journey.

“We are convinced it is in our Gulf & African partners’ best interest to have a strong partner like Liquid Telecom to accelerate their Microsoft cloud business. The acquisition will not affect any operations for current business partners, and business agreements with partners will continue as normal with regard to their platforms, prices, and the people that they are currently engaging with,” said Michael Hartmann, CEO of QBS MEA.

 -0-  PANA  AO/RA  28Jan2021