OTW Buy to Strengthen Business Play of Aussie Broadband

A proposal by Aussie Broadband to acquire Over the Wire in a $344m deal was unanimously supported by the OTW’s board. Aussie Broadband’s 410k residential and 28k business customers will be combined with around 16k OTW business, enterprise, and government customers if the deal pushes through.

This acquisition by Aussie broadband, albeit the first one made by the telco, significantly strengthens its presence in the industry. For Aussie broadband customers, this means a more seamless connection because the telco will be able to leverage OTW’s network automation and Carbon platform in conjunction with NetSIP. On the other hand, OTW’s customers will be moved to Aussie Broadband’s internally developed CRM and billing platform, which can pave the way for a smoother billing process.

According to managing director Phil Britt, “There were a number of different things that we were looking to add to our business suite and we could have gone and done multiple smaller acquisitions, and then tried to bring all those pieces in.”

However, he also said that Over the Wire “had all the pieces that we were after, which was primarily the cloud and security piece, but also the Tier 1 voice platform they’ve built is very attractive to us.”

Britt further added that a methodical approach to integration and realising synergies will be implemented. “There’s certainly some quick wins that we can do but the synergy phasing will be over a three-year period.”

He also noted that certain elements like building additional fibre and running off existing contracts would have to take time. “This is our first acquisition; it needs to go smoothly,” Britt further added. “We want to take our time, make sure it’s done right and that we don’t destroy any value on the way through, as so often happens with these things.”

OTW group CEO and managing director Michael Omeros will join the Aussie Broadband board in terms of cultural alignment. In this case, John Reisinger will be stepping down, but he will remain a senior executive at the telco.

Britt also said: “They’ve got a really good team — a really smart team that’s also highly compatible with our team, and the values are very similar.”

“We feel that the mix and the fit will be really good, and it will basically speed up what we’re trying to do, probably by about three to four years.”

“We believe there’s a lot of compatibility there,” he further said.

Meanwhile, Omeros said in a statement: “This is an exciting next step in the OTW journey, and I am very proud of what the OTW team has built over the years which is reflected in this compelling proposal for the company.”

OTW chair Stephe Wilks also said: “We admire the Aussie Broadband business’s strong ambitions and proven execution, and we are excited about the compelling customer propositions that OTW and ABB can bring to market together.”