Swedish Internet company Information Highway has expanded into Finland and Denmark by purchasing a company in each country.
Information Highway has acquired Finnish company Netmill, which supplies user-oriented solutions using Linux technology. Netmill will become Information Highway’s Center of Excellence for business solutions based on Linux/Open source.
Netmill also has experience creating solutions for e-commerce and customer relations management. It lists Lufthansa, Shell and Arla Finland among its customers. Netmill was founded in 1996, and boasts annual sales of around SEK 30 million (US$3.6 million).
The acquisitions of Netmill is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
The day after the Netmill purchase, Information Highway also acquired ELK in Denmark. ELK have received several acquisition bids, and its roster of customers includes Falck, Scandlines, Compaq, Den Danske Bank and Egmont Online.
The purchase price was set at Danish Crowns 55 million (US$7 million), paid in the form of cash and newly issued shares in Information Highway. Morten Elk will become the new CEO of Information Highway AS in Denmark.
Information Highway indicated that the next market in its international expansion strategy may be Germany. After these two deals, the company will have around 420 employees in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and the UK.
Its stock continues to climb with the news, signalling its complete turnaround from a near-bankrupt hardware company less than one year ago. The combination of new management and its transformation into an Internet company are credited for the reversal of fortune.
