Summary Bullets:
• Sale of BT Radianz to Transaction Network Services (TNS) is the latest phase of BT ‘tidying up’ its international business as it looks to focus mainly on the UK market.
• Underlines how service providers are having to refocus their strategies from general goals to specific, achievable ambitions.
BT has announced that it is to sell its BT Radianz business, which connects financial information exchange networks and a base of brokers, institutions, exchanges, and clearing houses across capital markets worldwide, to TNS, a global provider of ultra-low-latency trading infrastructure, connectivity, and market data services.
This marks the latest step in BT’s retreat from its historic global retail ambitions as it looks to transition to focus on the UK market for business, consumer, and wholesale customers, and to evolve its international business base around its Global Fabric Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform.
Radianz, originally formed in 2000 as a joint venture between Reuters and Equant (the then-brand of France Telecom/Orange global business services), was sold to BT in 2005 for $175 million as part of the UK incumbent’s then ambitious global growth strategy. The company is reported to have current annual revenues of GBP142 million.
The move makes perfect sense both parties. For TNS it complements its existing core business of IaaS-based financial transactions for point-of-sale (POS) terminals, ATMs, and various other payment systems, and for BT as it continues to refocus its business towards being UK only. BT has not released details on Radianz’s revenues or profitability, but it is clear that Radianz is no longer a core proposition and does not obviously fit inside the new BT International’s stated go-to-market strategy. The deal also releases further valuable capital for BT Group to invest in UK infrastructure and deal with other corporate challenges facing the provider.
Outside the UK, BT now only has its BT International division which essentially operates as an arm’s-length business unit. BT is in the process of figuring out how best to use its BT Fabric proposition to realize some return on its investment in what is largely regarded as a cutting-edge international NaaS platform. To date, the asset shedding has been more decisive and clearer than the future of BT International – but that must surely come soon.
The move also underlines the changing nature of telecoms service provider global strategies. Many are withdrawing in part or in whole, or focusing on niche markets where they have a clear advantage (e.g., T-Systems). Others continue to look to serve multinational and enterprise clients across borders with both connectivity and value-added services like cybersecurity (e.g., Orange Business and Telefónica). Then you have the likes of NTT DATA, looking to offer the full stack from telecoms and data center infrastructure to systems integration. The main point is that service providers are choosing their strategic focus and looking deliver on it.