Nippon Telegraph & Telephone's international unit will invest $5 billion to take full control of Verio to expand its global operations.

NTT Communications already owns 11.4 percent of Verio, an operator of Internet sites for businesses. Under today’s deal, NTT will acquire the remaining portion for $60 a share, 69 percent more than Verio’s closing price on Friday. The NTT unit will make the tender offer on May 17. Under the arrangement, the largest investment NTT has ever made, NTT Communications will merge Verio with one of its U.S. units. NTT Communications and Verio will join their networks, creating a faster and cheaper way of sending traffic over the Internet. Verio, the world's largest Web hosting service by number of domain names, is the owner of Web hosting and other Internet-related companies in Europe. NTT Communications owns stakes in Philippine Long Distance Telephone, Thai Telephone & Telecommunications and StarHub of Singapore. The move comes as NTT's rivals in Japan and abroad form global alliances aimed at enabling them to offer international, long-distance, local, voice and Internet services through a single provider, analysts said. NTT Communications, Japan's largest long-distance phone provider, will borrow money for the purchase from banks, Suzuki said. He added the company will have to come up with other measures to raise money. The transaction is expected to be completed within four months. NTT Communications bought its current 11.4 percent stake in Verio in May 1998, becoming the largest stakeholder in the U.S. company. At the time, NTT, which last year was split into two local units and an international unit, paid $100 million in what it said was its first entry into an Internet business overseas.