Pivotel buys Swoop's voice business for $9m

Swoop has divested its wholesale voice business in an all-cash sale to mobile communications provider Pivotel.

Gold Coast-based Pivotel will pay $9 million for Swoop’s Voicehub Group and Harbourtel, the entities that own and operate its voice call termination business.

Pivotel CEO Peter Bolger said the purchase will “drive long-term growth in [the company’s] wholesale voice and messaging business”.

“As demand for cloud-based services continues to grow, so does the need to provide quality voice and messaging origination and termination services,” he said in a statement.

“Voicehub are specialists in the wholesale voice business and their expertise will assist Pivotel as we continue to develop innovative solutions for the evolving unified communications market.”

As part of the acquisition, Swoop has entered into a five-year contract with Pivotel to maintain its wholesale rates and cost structure.

Pivotel told iTnews that four staff members will move over from Swoop, adding that " a number of wholesale carriage service provider customers" came with the business. 

ASX-listed Swoop originally bought Voicehub in October 2021 for $6 million.

However, the fixed wireless and wholesale network provider will now focus on its “key markets and customers” after only seeing “some growth” from its voice unit.

“As we close out FY24 we continue to see the core underlying residential and SMB-focused business units deliver strong organic growth across our key products of [fixed wireless] broadband, mobile and voice,” Swoop CEO Alex West told shareholders [pdf].

The company added that the deal will provide “additional balance sheet flexibility” and put it in a “stronger operating cash position in the underlying business for FY25”.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by July 1.