History
Vocus was founded by entrepreneur James Spenceley[11] in March 2008.[12] In 2013, Spenceley came in at No 81 on the BRW's Young Rich list after the business raised its annual revenue to $67 million.[13] Two years later, Spenceley became one of the youngest Australians in history to run a company worth more than $1 billion after Vocus merged with Perth-based Amcom.[14]
Amcom was founded in 1988[15] by Andrew Mclean to provide cabling services to CBD-based corporations and institutions in Perth. Amcom acquired a telecommunications carrier licence in 1998[16] and began building a fibre optic network. In 2009 Amcom won the Best Telecommunications Company of the Year 2009 - Australian Telecommunications Magazine.[17]
In December 2014, the board of Amcom approved the acquisition of the group by Vocus for AU$653 million.[18] In April 2015, rival TPG Telecom increased its shareholder stake in Amcom to 18.6 per cent in an attempt to block the merger.[19] TPG eventually built its stake to 19.9 per cent of Amcom.[20] In response, a campaign to persuade at least 75 per cent of shareholders to vote in favour of the merger was launched by both Amcom and Vocus. On 15 June 2015 the merger went ahead after 77 percent of Amcom shareholders voted in favour of the merger. In July 2015 the $1.2 billion merger between Amcom and Vocus was formally completed.[20] On 29 June 2015 CEO Clive Stein resigned after a 16-year career with the company to make way for incoming Vocus CEO Spenceley to take over the combined group.[21]
Executive director and founder Spenceley and non-executive director Tony Grist left the board of Vocus in October 2016 after a failed leadership succession proposal.
In February 2018 CEO Geoff Horth left the company. In March 2018 M2 Group Founding MD and CEO Vaughan Bowen stepped away from the role of Non-Executive Chairman of the Vocus Board to increase Board independence, and former Telstra Chairman and founding CEO of Optus, Robert Mansfield AO was made chairman.[22] Michael Simmons became Interim CEO until the appointment of Kevin Russell on 28 May 2018.
In April 2018, Vocus announced it had decided not to sell off the New Zealand portion of the business as an acceptable offer had not been received.
On 25 June 2021, Vocus was acquired by Voyage Australia Pty Limited, a consortium of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) and superannuation fund Aware Super.[23][24]
On 14 October 2024, Vocus announces deal to purchase TPG Telecom’s fibre network assets for A$5.25 billion and emerges as one of Australia’s biggest owners of underground fibre.[25][26] This deal was completed in August 2025.[27]
On 14 July 2025, Andrés Irlando was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Vocus Group. He previously held senior leadership roles in the US telecommunications sector, including President and COO of Zayo Group and CEO of Verizon Connect[28].
Vocus acquisitions
Vocus has made several acquisitions to extend its product and service offering. In 2014, Vocus purchased a data centre from ASG Group for $11.7 million.[29] In 2014 it also acquired Bentley data centre in Perth from IT provider ASG for $11.7m.[30] The same year, it acquired FX Networks,[31] a New Zealand-based fibre provider which services many of New Zealand's major organisations including many government agencies, telco carriers, ISPs and enterprises.[32] In 2015, it acquired Enterprise Data Corporation, including two Sydney and Melbourne based data centres for $23.5 million.[33][34] In 2015, Vocus acquired a 10% stake in the SEA-ME-WE 3 Cable from Telecom NZ,
