Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Mergers and take-overs, Technology, Telecomunications

The head of Bite Latvija, Kaspars Buls, said that Stream Networks and Latnet Serviss were successful businesses offering quality ICT services and had highly-skilled staff and vast experience in serving corporate customers.

"By joining our forces, we will be able to integrate mobile telecommunications services with modern ICT solutions, such as fiber-optic Internet, IP telephony, video surveillance, cloud services and other advanced business services, offering full range of services to our corporate customers," he said.

The teams currently working for Stream Networks and Latnet Serviss will continue working for the combined company, and the CEO of both companies, Edgars Ricevs, will also stay in his office. The combined company of Stream Networks and Latnet Serviss employs 48 people providing services to more than 25,000 customers in Latvia, mostly corporate entities.

The acquisition has to be approved by the Competition Council. The amount of the deal is being kept confidential.

According to Firmas.lv business information website, Stream Networks was founded in 2007 and is owned by Ricevs. The company's annual turnover has been around EUR 3.7 million in the last three years, and its profit has increased from EUR 134,981 in 2014 to EUR 310,158.

Founded in 1992, Latnet Serviss has been fully owned by Stream Networks since 2014. The company's annual turnover in recent years has been around EUR 2 million, and it closed 2016 with a profit of EUR 2016.

Bite Latvija is one of the companies owned by international assets manager Providence Equity Partners. Bite Latvija closed 2016 with a turnover of EUR 78.971 million, which is a 17.4% growth from 2015, and its profit rose 39.7% to EUR 7.345 million.