Telstra has confirmed it is looking to acquire Melbourne-based cloud specialist and CRN Fast50 company Versent.
The telco responded to an Australian Financial Review Street Talk column published last week, claiming the offer could be worth some $400 million.
“Telstra refers to an article published on the Australian Financial Review’s website at 8pm on 7/09/2023, that reported Telstra was preparing to table an offer to purchase Versent, a cloud consulting company,” Telstra’s ASX announcement read.
“Telstra confirms it is participating in the process. References to the value of the offer are speculative. There is no certainty a transaction involving Telstra will eventuate, should a transaction be finalised Telstra will update the market accordingly.”
The AFR also said two other IT services giants are set to submit final offers, namely Wipro and HCLTech.
The column referenced Telstra as being an underbidder for ASX-listed cybersecurity services company Tesserent, which was eventually snapped up by Thales in June, and has also reportedly shown interest in CyberCX.
Versent, founded by former National Australia Bank tech executives, specialises in cloud transformation and security products and services.
It is a major AWS partner and also owns AWS environment management software company Stax.
The company finished 13th in the 2018 CRN Fast50.
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