Reliance Buys Yipes for $300M

Reliance Communications Ltd., India's second largest telecommunications company, said today it is acquiring San Francisco-based Yipes Holdings Inc., a provider of managed Ethernet services, for $300 million in cash.

Reliance Communications said the acquisition, through an affiliate, is its largest to date. Yipes will operate as a strategic business unit, fully integrated strategically and operationally within Reliance's Flag Telecom. Yipes' key senior manager have committed to remain with the business and will continue with their present responsibilities, the company said.

Yipes owns more than 22,000 route kilometers of fiber across 14 US metropolitan markets covering about 40 percent of the total US data communications market. It also operates in London, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Punit Garg, President, Global Business, Reliance Communications commented: “The acquisition of Yipes will place Reliance Communications among the top three global Ethernet service providers in the world." He said the company plans to double Ethernet service the coverage in the US domestic market and rollout Yipes services over its Flag Telecom global network.

John Scanlon, CEO of Yipes, said in a statement: “Yipes pioneered metro Ethernet services, extended it across the US and expanded globally. With Reliance Communications, we aim to replicate our success in the US across the rest of the world. The financial sector, in particular, presents a key opportunity for us as we are well-positioned to capture the market by meeting the fast-growing and stringent connectivity requirements of financial exchanges around the world. The financial connectivity market alone is expected to reach $6.3 billion by 2010 and grow at around 35 percent per year.”

For more information, visit: www.reliancecommunications.co.in