Page 12 - bne_Tech_05_2020

Investment
May 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 12
Microsoft to invest $1bn in building Poland’s “Digital Valley”
US software giant Microsoft will invest $1bn
over seven years to develop a data centre
and associated cloud computing services for businesses in Poland, the company said on May 5.
“A new Microsoft data centre region in Poland, as part of a global cloud computing infrastructure, [will] provide the national ecosystem of startups, entrepreneurs, companies and public institutions with access to secure enterprise-class cloud services,” Microsoft said.
The investment will operate in cooperation
with Poland’s cloud services provider Chmura Krajowa, Microsoft also said. Chmura Krajowa is essentially a project of the Polish government, set up by the state-controlled bank PKO BP and the state-owned Polish Development Fund.
The two entities signed a “strategic agreement, which aims to provide expert knowledge in the field of digital transformation and wide access to
cloud solutions for all industries and companies in Poland.”
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki lauded Microsoft’s plans.
“Microsoft's investment in Poland will be important for enterprises, public institutions and the education system and will enable them to digitally transform and implement new work standards. Our main goal is to accelerate Poland's transformation into a technological hub for the region of Central and Eastern Europe,” Morawiecki said.
An important element of the investment will also be a comprehensive and long-term qualification improvement programme for Polish specialists and young people. Microsoft thus aims at developing digital competence of approximately 150,000 employees, IT professionals, teachers, students, and citizens in general, the company said.
Poland’s Cyfrowy Polsat media and telecom group acquires Interia from Bauer
The Polish media and telecom giant Cyfrowy Polsat’s broadcast subsidiary, Telewizja Polsat, has acquired one of the country’s leading internet companies, Interia Group, from its German owner Bauer Media Group, Cyfrowy Polsat said in a stock exchange filing on April 30.
The price is PLN422mn (€92.84mn) with Poland’s anti-monopoly office UOKiK still to give the deal a final clearance, Cyfrowy Polsat said. The transaction is fully financed from Telewizja Polsat’s own funds.
Interia is one of Poland’s leading providers of online media, boasting 16mn users a month that generate over 1.3bn page views across Interia’s services,
including the flagship news portal interia.pl.
“[The] acquisition of Interia is a strategic investment... It substantially strengthens the Group’s position on the dynamically growing online advertising market. It also creates an additional channel for distribution and monetization of [Polsat’s] content,” Cyfrowy Polsat said in a statement.
“For Polsat Group, Interia will also be the main area for marketing the entire portfolio of Polsat’s products and services on the Internet, including such brands as Plus, Cyfrowy Polsat, IPLA, Netia, or Polsat TV. Polsat Media, in turn, can support sales of Interia’s advertising space,” the company added.