Singapore-listed DeClout has announced an agreement to buy Pacnet’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) assets and business in Singapore and Thailand for a total of US$4.4 million in cash. This comes less than a year after Telstra acquired Pacnet for $700 million, and just months after Telstra announced that it would retire the Pacnet brand earlier this year.

The deal will see DeClout’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Acclivis Technologies and Solutions (Acclivis), buy over assets such as associated network equipment, around 2,000 customers, and the Pacific Internet trade marks in Singapore from Telstra. Subject to regulatory approval from the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore, the deal is expected to close by January. At the same time, DeClout’s indirect subsidiary Acclivis Technologies (Thailand) will acquire the entire share capital of Pacnet Internet Thailand.

Pacific Internet logo
– Pacific Internet logo

Full circle

Both the Singapore and Thailand businesses being acquired are focused on providing ISP services to small and medium-sized businesses. On its part, Acclivis runs network operations across four data centers at the moment and has committed to grow its data center footprint in the Asia Pacific over the next three years, with plans for presence in Thailand, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.

“The Pacnet Internet business in Singapore and Thailand is relatively small. It was not a core part of Pacnet, and it does not align with our strategy to grow our services to multinational companies and other large enterprises,” said a Telstra spokesperson in a ZDNet report, who noted that Telstra is not focused on the small business segment. “Therefore, we have agreed to sell it to a company that is more focused on the small business segment.”

The acquired assets will be merged with Acclivis’ existing ISP business, OSINet, and rebranded as Pacific Internet, which will bring the venerable brand full circle. Originally set up as TechNet in 1989, Pacific Internet was one of the pioneer Internet Service Providers in Singapore. Pacific Internet and subsea cable operator Asia Netcom merged into Pacnet in 2008, and the Pacific Internet brand was no longer actively used when Pacnet subsequently exited the Singapore residential market in 2012.

To be clear, the lions’ share of assets Telstra gained from its acquisition of Pacnet, including its extensive subsea cables in the region as well as its network of data centers, is not part of the deal. As we reported earlier, Pacnet owns a 46,000km undersea cable network, more than 20 data centers in the region, and has a presence in Mainland China through a joint venture called Pacnet Business Solutions (PBS).