The Latvian mobile operator LMT has agreed to acquire 100% of the data network and IT security provider Santa Monica Networks (SMN) for an undisclosed fee.
The completion of the transaction depends on permission from market regulators in Latvia and Lithuania. Once concluded, it will allow both companies, which will continue operating as separate legal entities, to introduce 5G networks more quickly and efficiently.
Commenting on the development, Ugis Berzins, SMN board chairman, said: “We have been driving innovation for many years by introducing the latest technologies in the Latvian market. Together with LMT, we will be able to take innovation to the next level by accelerating the development of various 5G business solutions and enabling more customers to have access to the most advanced technologies and corporate-level technology solutions”.
LMT President Juris Binde added: “For a long time, LMT has been more than a mobile communication service provider. We have also been enabling our customers to implement complex business transformation tasks with the help of IT solutions. We have ‘Innovator DNA’, as does Santa Monica Networks. By combining LMT’s experience in mobile communication solutions with the capacity of an experienced developer of data transmission networks and IT security solutions, we will become a leader in digital transformation. Together, we will be the best partner in digitalisation processes for any public sector organization or private sector company”.
Kristine Berzina, founding partner Livonia Partners, the current majority owner of SMN, said: “Livonia Partners invests in companies that are leaders in their markets and have teams of courageous entrepreneurs and managers. SMN is precisely this kind of company. SMN in Latvia was founded in 2003 by Ugis Berzins, who, based on his vision for technology development and their role in customers’ businesses, has built a market leader in networking solutions, together with an excellent team. We are grateful for the opportunity to support the SMN team with financial capital and our knowledge. We are convinced that the company will reach new heights as part of the LMT group”.
Livonia Partners is a Baltic private equity firm that currently manages €83 million. Meanwhile, SMN was founded in 1989 and has been offering solutions to Latvia’s largest telecommunications, IT and media companies, public sector and financial institutions, as well as manufacturing companies in Latvia and Lithuania, since 2003.
