Orange completed an acquisition of enterprise infrastructure company Basefarm, a move the telecommunications group said made it a European leader in the cloud computing sector.

The acquisition of Basefarm was first announced in July and, now the deal is complete, the company will be absorbed into Orange Business Services.

In a statement, Orange said Basefarm “enjoyed steady growth since its creation” and recorded revenue of more than €100 million in 2017.

It added Basefarm’s proposition “lies at the forefront of innovative services in cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence, thanks to the widely-recognised expertise of its 550 employees for maximum customer satisfaction.”

The cloud computing specialist was founded in 2000 and originally focused on enterprises in the Nordics and the Netherlands. It expanded into Austria and Germany during 2017 through the acquisition of cloud and big data specialist The Unbelievable Machine Company, which has since operated as a subsidiary of Basefarm.

Orange said the acquisition would complement its existing enterprise offering and “reinforce its strategic position by bringing a new source of expertise and innovative technologies, particularly in data management, the management of critical applications, big data and multi-cloud services.”