Comcast to Acquire New Global Telecom

Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) has confirmed a report that it has agreed to buy closely held VoIP service provider New Global Telecom Inc. The deal will help the MSO further accelerate its pursuit of small and mid-sized business customers.

Comcast isn't disclosing financial terms. Golden, Colo.-based NGT was founded in 1996 and has about 100 employees.

For several years, NGT, a provider of wholesale hosted and trunk-based VoIP services, has been managing a BroadSoft Inc. -powered platform owned by Comcast. Some of its other marquee customers include AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Belgacom SA (Euronext: BELG).

It's expected that NGT would continue to serve its customer base after the deal is sealed. NGT doesn't disclose revenue figures, but last January the company announced it had surpassed 100,000 VoIP "seats under management."

"NGT is an innovative company that has expertise in developing, deploying, and managing voice and unified communications services that we plan to make available to our business services customers," Comcast said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. "Doing so will not only enhance the services we offer today, but will also enable us to deliver them more quickly and cost-effectively."

The NGT acquisition is viewed as a move that would help Comcast complement its organic business-services growth.

Comcast played a similar card last fall with the acquisition of Cimco Communications, a Chicago-area CLEC that has more than 2,300 customers. Cimco gave Comcast faster entry to the mid-level commercial services sector. (See Comcast Snares a CLEC .)

Comcast got its commercial strategy effort off the ground by targeting small businesses with one to 20 employees, viewing that as a $15 billion market opportunity. The next level up, 20 to 250 employees, represents about the same potential worth to the MSO.

But Comcast has gotten just a sliver of that so far. Its business services unit brought in $770 million through the first three quarters of 2009, with a 51 percent jump between its second-quarter and third-quarter revenues.

Comcast is scheduled to report fourth-quarter numbers early Wednesday morning.

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News