Easynet

Easynet was a managed services provider founded in 1994 by David Rowe and Keith Teare. Headquartered in London, the company delivered integrated networks, hosting, and unified communications services to organizations globally, with offices in Europe, Asia Pacific, and the US.

The company played a pioneering role in the UK's internet development. It supplied internet access to Cyberia, the UK's first internet café, and in 2001, became the first operator to unbundle a local loop from British Telecom to provide its own broadband service. Over the years, Easynet underwent several ownership changes. It was acquired by British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in 2006 for £211 million. In 2010, BSkyB sold the Easynet brand and its customer base to Lloyds Development Capital (LDC). MDNX Group, backed by private equity firm Equistone Partners Europe, acquired the company from LDC in 2013, combining it with its own brands to trade under the Easynet name.

The business model focused on providing managed network and hosting solutions to a diverse client base that included enterprises, public sector entities, and national clients. Its portfolio included network connectivity, colocation, unified communications, security, voice, and videoconferencing. In its final major transaction, Easynet was acquired by Interoute, a large European network and cloud services platform, for £402 million in October 2015. This acquisition was part of Interoute's strategy to create a leading independent ICT provider in Europe. The Interoute business, including the former Easynet assets, was subsequently acquired by GTT Communications for $2.3 billion in 2018.

Keywords: managed services provider, integrated networks, unified communications, network hosting, cloud integration, internet service provider, LLU, colocation services, managed hosting, fiber optic network, enterprise ICT, pan-European network, connectivity services, data centre infrastructure, voice services, videoconferencing, application performance, security services, broadband services, corporate networking