EATEL Acquires Baton Rouge-Based Venyu (PR)

BATON ROUGE, La., /PRNewswire/ -- EATEL, a leading regional telecommunications service provider, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of privately-held Venyu Solutions Inc., a national provider of data center, managed hosting, cloud, virtualization, and data protection solutions. The acquisition provides new growth opportunities for both entities as well as strengthening complementary service lines with integrated business solutions.

"The acquisition of Venyu positions EATEL within the rapidly growing cloud-based business services, data center, and hosting markets. Venyu's success in the Gulf South coupled with our expanding fiber network and corporate footprint will provide both entities with new growth opportunities," said John Scanlan, President and Vice Chairman at EATEL.

Venyu, founded in 1989, is headquartered in Baton Rouge, LA, and has approximately 75 employees. Venyu has data center operations in Baton Rouge and Shreveport-Bossier, LA. The company will become a wholly owned subsidiary of EATEL and maintain its headquarters, data center locations, existing service offerings, staff and the senior management team. "The EATEL partnership provides Venyu with the additional financial resources needed to capitalize on new growth opportunities and expand our market share beyond our current service area," said Scott Thompson, Founder and CEO at Venyu.

Venyu has been a pioneer in offsite backup and was one of the first service providers in the U.S. to leverage virtualization for disaster recovery.

EATEL, as one of the first companies in the country to build a 100% fiber-to-the-home network to provide residential and business customers TV, Internet, and phone services, has been similarly innovative in its business philosophy. EATEL currently is expanding its fiber network into Baton Rouge, LA, and most recently acquired telecommunications and cable television service provider, Vision Communications, in Lafourche Parish, LA.

Charlesmead Advisors, LLC served as the financial advisor to EATEL. Financial terms of the acquisition are not disclosed.

About EATEL - EATEL, founded in 1935, is a leading regional telecommunications service provider headquartered in Gonzales, Louisiana. EATEL was one of the first companies in the country to build a 100% fiber network to provide residential and business customers a broad array of integrated digital services including TV, Internet, and phone. Other wholly-owned subsidiaries included Sunshine Media, a leading regional yellow pages service provider, as well as Vision Communications, a telecommunications service provider in Lafourche Parish, LA. For more information about EATEL, please visit www.eatel.com

About Venyu - Venyu is a premier provider of data center, managed hosting, cloud, virtualization and data protection solutions. By leveraging Venyu's portfolio of innovative, ROI-focused solutions, including VenyuCloud and RestartIT within secure, highly available data centers, organizations can reduce IT costs while increasing security and scalability. For more information about Venyu and its industry-leading offerings, please visit www.venyu.com. Your Data Made Invincible™.

SOURCE EATEL