Australia''s M2 Telecommunications Group (MTU.AX) on Monday agreed to buy Primus Telecom Holdings, the Australian operations of the U.S. Primus Telecommunications Group Inc (PTGI.N), for A$192.4 million ($199 million) in cash.

"The introduction of the Primus suite of next generation services along with the skilled and passionate team will ensure our sales teams are armed with the latest managed/hosted service offerings to meet the needs of current and prospective customers", M2 CEO, Geoff Horth.

"M2’s acquisition of Primus is a strategic and highly complementary transaction which, in addition to adding significant scale, will contribute next generation sales and support capability, ensuring that M2 is well prepared for the opportunities presented by the deployment of the National Broadband Network (NBN)”, said M2 said in its announcement to the ASX.

The primary assets of Primus include- approximately 165,000 customer contracts, comprising a mixture of residential, small and medium business, corporate and wholesale customers, adding significant scale to the M2 Group; the well-recognised and trusted iPrimus and Primus brands a highly skilled an passionate team of approximately 500 people including the long-serving and experienced management team; and  the national Primus network including data centres and metro fibre rings, providing the capability to sell and support next generation cloud based services.

The sale comes after McLean, Va.-based Primus Telecommunications formed a special committee of directors to explore strategic alternatives for boosting shareholder value, including the possible sale of the company. Peter Aquino, the company's chairman, president and CEO, said that the sale of the Australian operations represents a "significant outcome" for that process.