e& Completes Acquisition of GlassHouse for $60 Million

e& enterprise UAE Holding Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of technology and telecoms company e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group), on Thursday announced that it has completed the acquisition of 100% stake of GlassHouse Bilgi Sistemleri Ticaret Anonim Şirketi (GlassHouse) for an enterprise value of $60 million on a cash free, debt free basis.

The acquisition of Glasshouse is a decisive step in e& enterprise’s journey towards becoming a regional leader in end-to-end digital transformation, establishing Turkiye as a key new market. This expansion follows the company’s successful market entries into Saudi Arabia in 2019 and Egypt in 2023, reinforcing its position as a formidable player in the regional digital transformation market.

Glasshouse’s acquisition also centres on key pillars of e& enterprise’s strategy of strengthening capabilities, adding vertical expertise, and expanding into high-growth markets. The acquisition reinforces e&’s capabilities in private cloud and managed services, and also bolsters its overall value proposition, with the addition of SAP capabilities and vertical expertise in financial services segment to its portfolio.

This step comes further to the e& enterprise’s announcement on 25 June 2024 regarding the signing of a binding agreement with the selling parties including Mediterra Capital and the individual shareholder, e& Group Chief Financial Officer Karim Bennis said in a regulatory filing with Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) this morning.

Established in 2004, GlassHouse, a Turkiye-based company, is a market leader in data backup and business continuity, managed cloud, and SAP Infrastructure services. The company operates in a wide range of sectors including banking, technology, telecommunications, public services, aerospace, and defence.

GlassHouse Technologies, with a team of over 150 employees and offices in Turkiye, South Africa, and Qatar, GlassHouse serves more than 2,000 enterprises, including nine of the top ten banks in Turkiye.

Its capabilities extend to on-premise backup and managed services, private sovereign cloud solutions, customer private cloud management, and SAP professional services. As a trusted partner for industry giants like Dell Technologies, and SAP, GlassHouse delivers unparalleled expertise and support. 

Strategic Endeavours

The transaction serves as a testament of e& envisioned investments that come in alignment with its strategic endeavours to strengthen operations through reinforcing business capabilities.

The e& enterprise vertical intends to leverage on its expanded geographical footprint and client base to complement its portfolio of services and bolster its SAP capabilities and deepen its vertical expertise.

The acquisition will set the tone for more synergetic opportunities across e&’s operating markets, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Turkiye.

The transaction value will be financed through debt and is not associated to related parties. The financials of GlassHouse will be consolidated into e&’s financials starting 1 September 2024, though the impact on e&’s overall figures will be insignificant, Karim Bennis said in the filing.

Past Acquisitions

e& enterprise, has acquired Smartworld, one of the UAE’s leading technology solutions providers and systems integrators in the past.

The company also acquired majority stake in Beehive, Mena’s leading peer-to-peer digital platform to tap into opportunities in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) lending market. The acquisition is in line with UAE’s National Agenda for Entrepreneurship which aims to establish the country to become an entrepreneurial nation by 2031.