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GTS Central Europe Acquires Hungarian Data Center Provider, Interware

Budapest Data Center Strengthens GTS Group’s Service Offering

Budapest, June 15th, 2010 – GTS Central Europe (GTS) today announced that it has agreed to acquire Interware Zrt., a leading provider of data center services in the Hungarian market. The deal is subject to local Competition Office approval and expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2010. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Interware is a Hungarian alternative telecommunications service provider offering server hosting, collocation, internet and fixed voice services primarily for business customers. The company operates two data centers in downtown Budapest which provide 1,075 net square meters of collocation space and host 3,300 customer servers from the manufacturing, public, media and ICT sectors.

The Interware acquisition follows the recent acquisition of Romanian telecommunications operator Datek and is aligned with GTS’s overall strategy of becoming the preferred partner and supplier in the Central & Eastern European (CEE) region for integrated telecommunications solutions for the carrier and corporate market. The acquisition establishes GTS as one of the key players in the Hungarian collocation and server hosting market. Together with its existing data center in Budaörs, GTS will provide for its customers a total of 1,490 square meters of data center space that meets the highest demands in terms of quality and reliability.

Given the increasing demand for data storage in the CEE region, GTS announced expansion plans of its data center infrastructure in March 2010. The company currently operates seven data centers in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania, providing more than 6,000 square meters of collocation space and capacity for more than 10,000 servers. GTS‘s extensive metro and international fiber network provides collocation customers numerous connectivity/network capacity options from the company’s data centers. GTS will expand its collocation capacity with the opening of a new 700 square meter facility in Prague in late July.

"Our acquisition of Interware further solidifies the position of GTS as a significant player in the CEE data center market and a leading market consolidator among infrastructure-based telecomunications operators in the region. The Interware data centers provide our customers additional secure collocation space and expand our capabilities in the server hosting market," said Adam Sawicki, Group CEO at GTS Central Europe. "Furthermore, our Budapest metro fiber network will provide the Interware data center customers increased connectivity options."

About GTS Central Europe
GTS Central Europe (GTS CE) is a leading provider of integrated telecommunications solutions in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. GTS CE has an extensive regional fibre optic network throughout the CEE region with network extensions to neighbouring countries such as Austria, the Balkans, the Baltic States, Russia, Turkey and the Ukraine. In the CEE countries of Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, GTS CE has deep metro networks which enable voice, data, IP, MPLS and broadband communication services for local business customers as well as telecommunication carriers, mobile operators and content providers. GTS CE was awarded the "Best Wholesale Offering" of Central and Eastern Europe award by the Capacity magazine in 2005, 2007 and 2009. In 2009, the GTS CE generated revenues of EUR 384.5m and EBITDA of EUR 86m.

GTS CE is owned by a consortium of private equity investors, led by Columbia Capital and M/C Venture Partners, both US-based investors with extensive experience in the communications and technology-enabled services sectors, and Innova Capital, a leading private equity group focused on Central Europe. HarbourVest Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners round out the Consortium. More information is available via www.gtsce.com.

More information:
Agnieszka Chrzanowska,
phone: +48 22 488 8082,
mobile phone: +48 695 911 072,
e-mail: agnieszka.chrzanowska@gtsce.com

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