Internet Initiative Japan to acquire AT&T’s Japan networking operations

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AT&T and Internet Initiative Japan Inc have announced an agreement for IIJ to acquire AT&T Japan’s operations focused on domestic Japanese outsourcing services, including approximately 1,600 domestic Japanese business customers and approximately 250 AT&T employees who support these customers. AT&T, through its existing local entities, will continue to serve the global needs of multinational corporations (MNCs) with operations in Japan.

The agreement reinforces AT&T’s strategic focus on providing managed global connectivity and application services for MNCs and complements IIJ’s strategy of expanding its portfolio of domestic services and customer relationships.

AT&T will continue to maintain a strong presence in Japan, including substantial operations and employees dedicated to AT&T Global Network infrastructures in Japan. The sale does not involve AT&T’s infrastructure in Japan, which includes four global network service nodes, remote access infrastructure for corporate clients, an Internet Data Centre and significant international subsea cable capacity. In addition to managed global connectivity services, AT&T’s retained business in Japan also provides an advanced portfolio of value-added services such as hosting, mobile enterprise applications, cloud computing, application management, security, Telepresence and unified communications.

“Japan is one of the top destinations for our multinational clients and remains an important market for AT&T. We intend to maintain a strong presence in Japan, but it makes strategic sense for us to sell our domestic customer base and supporting operations in Japan to IIJ,” said Bernard Yee, vice president AT&T Asia Pacific. “The sale will enable AT&T to focus on its core strength — providing global managed connectivity and application services to multinational corporations that operate on a global basis.”