DearBytes B.V. has been acquired by Koninklijke KPN N.V.

January 2017 — The shareholders of DearBytes B.V. have sold the company to Koninklijke KPN N.V. (KPN).

DearBytes is the trusted partner in the fight against cyber threats and has built a large client base of more than 1,100 clients over the past years. In 2015, the company opened its state-of-the-art Security Operations Center (SOC) in The Hague, managing clients’ IT security and offering proactive and real time 24/7 eyes-on-screen monitoring of networks and IT infrastructures, 365 days a year.

KPN is the largest telecom and IT service provider in the Netherlands and offers TV, internet, fixed and mobile telephony to consumers. Furthermore, KPN offers a wide range of services to businesses and large corporate customers, such as fixed and mobile telephony, internet, consulting, workspace management, cloud services, data center capacity and other network-related ICT solutions. DearBytes’ activities complement KPN’s existing services and perfectly fit with KPN’s growth strategy focused on offering high quality security services.

Frank van der Post, CCO of KPN, said: “We notice a rapidly growing customer demand for robust and easily accessible security services against digital threats such as ransomware and phishing. With DearBytes we acquire a company with strong expertise in this field that fits perfectly with our aim to be the best service provider for our customers.”

Our role in the transaction

Oaklins’ team in the Netherlands acted as the exclusive M&A advisor to the shareholders of DearBytes. The team’s specialist commented: “Following the sale of Infradata to Waterland Private Equity and the sale of SurfRight to Sophos, this is our third transaction in the Dutch IT security market in the last 18 months and another perfect example of the active M&A environment and ongoing consolidation in this space. As these trends are expected to continue for the coming years, we look forward to advising on many more transactions in this sector.”