Viatel Technology Group is a Dublin-based technology company, founded from some of the elements of the Nasdaq-quoted US technology company of the same name but now part of a holding with Digiweb, focused primarily on the Irish market.
History
Early years
Viatel was founded in 1991 by Martin Varsavsky. In 1994, it went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Four years later, Varsavsky sold his stake in the company for US$200 million and left the company. In 1999, Viatel's market capitalization reached US$1.2 billion. At that time, Viatel's second-largest outside shareholder was George Soros, while the largest outside stake was held by the global telecommunications company COMSAT. On May 2, 2001 Viatel Inc. and its all of its U.S. subsidies filed for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the state of Delaware.
Sale to Digiweb and divestment
The European arm of Viatel was purchased, in May 2013, by the Irish telecoms operator Digiweb,with at least some Viatel investors retaining interests in the new setup. In November 2015 it was announced that Zayo was in the process of buying Viatel's UK and mainland Europe network, leaving the Irish network to continue under the name of Viatel; this €98.8m transaction was completed on December 31, 2015.
Irish business
The remaining elements of Viatel focused on the Irish, and to some extent European markets, for business telecoms, cloud and cyber security services, with significant Irish and global brands as customers. In 2018, Paul Rellis, the former chief operations officer for Microsoft in Western Europe, and a former head of Microsoft Ireland, was appointed as CEO of the Digiweb Group, with Digiweb and Viatel as the main operating branches.
Growth from 2020 - acquisitions
In October 2020 Viatel acquired Ripplecom and Irish Telecom Service in December 2020. In July 2021, Nova Telecom was added, followed in October 2021 by Skytel Networks and January 2022 by digital transformation services provider, ActionPoint. In February 2022, Wifibre was added, and in July 2022, supportIT, and then in May 2023, Sungard AS Ireland.
Following considerable organic growth and the series of acquisitions, Viatel reached a staffing of over 310 people, with locations in Dublin, Dundalk and Limerick.
Awards
In 2015 Viatel received a "Highly Commended" award for Best Wholesale Service Provider at the Comms National Awards, and was nominated for Capacity Magazine's Global Carrier Awards for Best Pan-European Wholesale Carrier. Viatel was named as Cisco Transformation & Innovation Partner Award Winner 2021.
Viatel Technology Group is a Platinum Standard Deloitte Best Managed Company. In 2023, Viatel was named as Best Place to Work by the Tech Excellence Awards and Managed ICT Company of the Year by the Chambers Ireland InBUSINESS Recognition Awards. Viatel was also shortlisted as Company of the Year by the Tech Excellence Awards and Best Professional Services Agency in the Guaranteed Irish Business Awards.