This week, Helios Towers have announced its latest financial results, showing a revenue increase of 25% from $212.4 million in HY1 2022 to $265.4 million in H2.
Helios attributes this significant bump to the strong performance of its newly acquired towers in Africa in recent years…

This week, Helios Towers have announced its latest financial results, showing a revenue increase of 25% from $212.4 million in HY1 2022 to $265.4 million in H2.

Helios attributes this significant bump to the strong performance of its newly acquired towers in Africa in recent years, with the company gaining towers from Free Senegal in Senegal in May 2021 and Airtel Africa in Madagascar and Malawi in November 2021 and March 2022, respectively.  

In total, the company’s tower portfolio has increased by around 2,000 towers this financial year, with the company’s complete tower holdings numbering around 10,700 in eight African markets: Senegal, Ghana, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, and Madagascar.

The company also recently entered the Middle East by purchasing almost 3,000 towers in Oman last year from state-run telco Omantel.  

“We have delivered strong organic tenancy growth in the first half of the year, which combined with the successful integration of acquired assets in Senegal, Madagascar and Malawi has resulted in impressive year-on-year financial performance,” explained Helios CEO Tom Greenwood, who took over the role back in April. 

Following these positive results, Helios says it will continue its M&A push in Africa and the Middle East, which it views as two exciting markets for connectivity infrastructure, given their young, growing population and strong GDP expansion forecasts. 

The company says that its targeted capex for 2022 is between $810 million and $850 million for 2022, with up to $650 million of this earmarked for further acquisitions.

This week, US investment firm KKR has announced that it has completed its acquisition of California-based IT security company Barracuda Networks from fellow private equity company Thoma Bravo.
The financial details of the deal have not been announced, but inside sources have previously suggested a price tag of roughly $4 billion. 
Barracuda provides cybersecurity solutions to small and medium…

This week, US investment firm KKR has announced that it has completed its acquisition of California-based IT security company Barracuda Networks from fellow private equity company Thoma Bravo.

The financial details of the deal have not been announced, but inside sources have previously suggested a price tag of roughly $4 billion. 

Barracuda provides cybersecurity solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with over 200,000 customers around the world. 

Back when the deal was first announced in April, KKR said that it would seek to expand the company’s offerings in various key areas, including managed detection and response and secure access service edge technology. The firm also says that it will push Barracuda to expand further into international markets

“We continue to see cybersecurity as a highly attractive sector and are excited to back a clear leader in the space,” said John Park, the head of KKR’s Technology team within its Americas Private Equity platform, speaking when the deal was first announced. “Given its proven track record of growth and innovation, we believe that Barracuda has the right team and model to capture business in this growing market.”

“We’re ready to deliver on our next phase of growth with KKR and remain dedicated to investing in our team and product portfolio to provide innovative cybersecurity solutions for our customers and partners,” added Hatem Naguib, CEO of Barracuda. “We‘re grateful to Thoma Bravo for their valuable strategic and operational support over the last four years.”

Cybersecurity has seen a surge in interest from private equity firms since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with the increased focus on working from home leading to a concurrent boom in cybercrime that continues to this day, particularly in the form of ransomware attacks. 

KKR itself already has significant investments in the cybersecurity industry, most notably managed cybersecurity services firm Optiv Security Inc, which it acquired back in 2017 for almost $2 billion. Since then, Optiv has expanded into Canada and Europe via numerous acquisitions and is now reportedly valued at over $3 billion.

In February, reports suggested that KKR was exploring a sale or the launch of an initial public offering for Optiv.

Also in the news:

Amazon Web Services (AWS) first unveiled its private 5G services back in November last year, announcing that they were developing a private mobile network offering that would allow enterprises to deploy, operate, and scale up their own mobile networks “in a matter of days”.
Now, nine months later, the AWS Private 5G service has officially been launched…

Amazon Web Services (AWS) first unveiled its private 5G services back in November last year, announcing that they were developing a private mobile network offering that would allow enterprises to deploy, operate, and scale up their own mobile networks “in a matter of days”.

Now, nine months later, the AWS Private 5G service has officially been launched, with the cloud-specialist suggesting that the service would be both cheaper and simpler to deploy than comparable gear from a traditional mobile operator.

AWS says that enterprise customers renting the service from AWS can specify their unique network requirements during the purchasing process, with AWS then sending them the required hardware and SIM cards for self-service installation at the location, as well as providing assorted software. The private network will integrate directly with AWS’s various security and observation resources, such as AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).

“This cool new service lets you design and deploy your own private mobile network in a matter of days. It is easy to install, operate, and scale, and does not require any specialized expertise. You can use the network to communicate with the sensors & actuators in your smart factory, or to provide better connectivity for handheld devices, scanners, and tablets for process automation,” explained AWS Chief Evangelist Jeff Barr in a company blog post.

The service will provide a consistent throughput to multiple devices, as well as the ultra-low latency required for real-time automation.

“Each network supports one radio unit that can provide up to 150 Mbps of throughput spread across up to 100 SIMs. We are working to add support for multiple radio units and greater number of SIM cards per network,” explained Barr.

The service is set to be sold to customers by the radio unit, with each unit charged at $10 per hour, with a minimum contract length of 60 days. This means that operating a single radio unit for 10-hours a day for 255 days (a standard working year) would cost $25,500.

For now, the AWS Private 5G service confusingly only supports 4G LTE services, with 5G capabilities expected to be delivered at an unspecified future date. 

The service is currently only available three US regions so far – US East (Ohio), US East (North Virginia), and US West (Oregon) – but a wider rollout in the US and internationally is being planned. 

Will the launch of AWS Private 5G reshape the enterprise market space for telcos? Join the operators in discussions at the upcoming Connected America conference 

Also in the news:
Veon offloads stake in Omnium Telecom Algeria
INWIT board resigns as TIM stake sale closes
US Department of Defense launches trio of 5G projects