Telefónica SA formed a new unit named Telefónica Tech and appointed lead executives for the new segment that will comprise the cloud, security and internet of things/big data businesses of the Spanish-headquartered company.

The creation of the new unit is part of a plan to tap on the digital services "that are highly demanded by companies," Telefónica said in a Dec. 16 news release.

Telefónica Tech is open to acquisitions that may strengthen its portfolio of services. The unit could also introduce other new services in the future.

Telefónica expects to generate more than €2 billion additional revenues in 2022 from the unit.

José Cerdán will serve as Telefónica Tech's CEO and will continue with his role as global head of the business-to-business segment at Telefónica. Cerdán will report directly to Telefónica COO Ángel Vilá.

Telefónica also appointed Antonio Marti as the unit's COO. Meanwhile, Pedro Pablo Pérez, Gonzalo Martín-Villa and Hugo de los Santos were selected to lead the areas of security, IoT/big data and cloud, respectively.