NEW YORK-Long Distance International Inc., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., announced Oct. 1 a merger with Stockholm-based NETnet International S.A. that will add 90,000 business customers to LDI’s portfolio in Europe, of which 65,000 are cellular and 25,000 are long-distance subscribers.
Terms of the transaction, announced at LDI’s London offices, call for NETnet to receive 37.5 percent of the shares of the new combined company.
The merged company has operations in 11 countries: Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.
LDI, established in 1995 as a switchless reseller of long-distance wireline services, has 250,000 residential customers in the United Kingdom and United States. A year ago, it also started LDI Wireless, a domestic division that resells prepaid cellular services using Philips Isis phones.
“This is a natural next step for LDI in its goal to deliver fast-track growth to become a pan-European provider of telecommunications services,” said Clifford Friedland, chairman and co-founder of LDI.
“The organizations are complementary, and we have been impressed by NETnet’s attention to its corporate customers.”
NETnet, founded in late 1994, buys “over-capacity from other operators … and routes calls via the lowest-cost operator via the NETnet router, which is installed in the customer’s switchboard,” the company said.
Targeting small and medium-size business customers, NETnet provides international and national wireline calling. It also resells mobile wireless telephony services to the same customer base.
“Of all the potential partners, LDI proved the most attractive,” said Jan Carlzon, chairman and co-founder of NETnet.
“Its complementary network infrastructure and business culture offered the greatest potential and best match for the company’s staff, customers and shareholders.”
