Telenor and Verdane partner on IT services unit valued at $700M
What's the deal? Norwegian telecom giant Telenor is teaming up with Nordic private equity firm Verdane to co-own its IT services business, in a deal that values the unit at roughly US$906.6M. The partnership gives Verdane a significant stake in the operation, while Telenor retains co-ownership.
Why now? Telecom operators across Europe have been carving out and monetising non-core business units to sharpen their focus on connectivity and infrastructure. Bringing in a buyout fund signals Telenor believes the IT services arm can scale faster with a dedicated growth-equity partner than it could inside a large corporate structure.
What could go wrong? Corporate carve-outs are notoriously complex. Separating teams, contracts, and technology stacks from a parent company can slow momentum. There is also the risk that the unit, now partly under private equity ownership, faces pressure to prioritise short-term returns over long-term investment.
The signal: The deal fits a broader pattern of European telecoms unlocking value from adjacent business lines — towers, data centres, and now IT services — by partnering with financial investors. For Verdane, a firm focused on tech-enabled growth companies in the Nordics, it represents a bet that enterprise IT services will keep compounding as businesses digitise. Expect more transactions like this as telecoms continue to slim down and PE firms hunt for stable, recurring-revenue assets.
Read more: dn.no
