Japan's NTT pays US$875m for two US cloud computing firms

[TOKYO] NTT Communications said yesterday that it would pay a combined US$875 million for two US-based cloud computing firms, marking the latest major overseas acquisition by a Japanese firm.

The telecoms giant said that it had agreed to buy Virtela for US$525 million, while it would shell out US$350 million for an 80 per cent stake in RagingWire as it looks to boost its ability to supply online access to software and data storage for big global clients.

The deals come as NTT looks to counter a slowdown in its mainstay long-distance telecom business. "The acquisition (of RagingWire) will more than double NTT's data centre space in the US, which will enable the company to respond to high demand for data centre services in North America," it said in a statement.