GTT has announced it will buy cloud networking provider Interoute for €1.9 billion (£1.7 billion) in cash, adding an additional 72,000km of fibre network coverage to its European operation. 

The acquisition will also mean GTT is able to reach a much larger area, making use of Interoute’s 126 cities across 29 countries, plus its extensive resources, including 15 data centres, 17 virtual data centres and 51 colocation facilities.

GTT will also take onboard Interoute’s 1,000 strategic enterprise and carrier clients, the majority of which reside in Europe, offering an enhanced selection of infrastructure, edge and hosted services.

“The acquisition of Interoute represents a major milestone in delivering on our purpose of connecting people, across organisations and around the world,” said Rick Calder, GTT president and CEO.

“This combination creates a disruptive market leader with substantial scale, unique network assets and award-winning product capabilities to fulfill our clients’ growing demand for distributed cloud networking in Europe, the U.S. and across the globe.”

Calder added the deal is estimated to close in three to six months and the businesses merged fully within three to four quarters. Many of Interoute’s employees, including its sales, operations and customer service teams will transfer to GTT, enhancing its existing resources on a global scale.

“This is an exciting next chapter for Interoute, GTT, our customers and our team,” added Gareth Williams, Interoute CEO. “The combined assets and strengths of our two companies create a powerful portfolio of high-capacity, low-latency connectivity, and innovative cloud and edge infrastructure services to support our customers in the global digital economy.”