Telefonica Europe Acquires Jajah For $207 Million

Telefonica Europe has announced that it has snapped up the telephony and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service provider Jajah for $207 million in cash.

Rumours were floating on the blogosphere about the proposed takeover several days before the official announcement for the same actually surfaced.

There were also speculations that some of technology heavyweights, including Cisco Systems and Microsoft Corp., were competing with Telefonica to buy out the VoIP specialist. 

Telefonica Europe, better known as O2, already has a user-base of more than 48 million as a part of its communication business, and the addition of Jajah to its stable would presumably help the company beef up its offerings to attract more customers. 

Jajah, founded in Austria back in 2005 and has a user base of over 15 million, is a prolific Skype competitor that allows users to make long distance calls over the internet.

Users simply need to click on to Jajah’s website and enter their own numbers and the numbers they are wishing to call, and the service subsequently routes the long distance calls in an ultimately cost-effective manner.

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Matthew Key, chief executive at Telefonica Europe, said in a statement: “The acquisition of Jajah broadens the scope of our communications offering and opens up new capabilities in the voice communication space”.