As if following the lead of one of its major rivals, Time Warner Cable announced on Tuesday an agreement to buy NaviSite, provider of hosting, managed services and cloud-based services.

Verizon (the rival) announced its acquisition of Terremark, a US company that provides a similar portfolio of services as does NaviSite, with emphasis on cloud, last week. Terremark is a much bigger company than NaviSite is.

Time Warner Cable's agreement to buy NaviSite for US$5.50 per share in cash is still subject to approval by NaviSite shareholders, however, the number adds 33% on top of the selling price of NaviSite shares at markets' close on Tuesday.

The price puts NaviSite's total equity value at about $230m. For comparison's sake, Terremark's total equity value in the Verizon transaction is $1.4bn.

Glenn Britt, Time Warner chairman and CEO, said the company's commercial services business was a key growth driver for the company as a whole and the addition of NaviSite would strengthen its offering to small and medium-sized customers.

"NaviSite provides us with a successful managed services business and a new, innovative managed cloud platform representing significant new growth opportunities," Britt said.

"We expect to build upon NaviSite's successful enterprise-class offerings, and their operational capabilities, infrastructure and expertise to more rapidly create a robust managed services offering for small and medium-sized businesses."

Time Warner Cable expects to close the transaction in the second quarter of 2011.

NaviSite operates data centers in the US and UK, as well as NOCs in India and US.