Fiber M&A: Fatbeam Acquires Its Way Into Tacoma

There was a bit of fiber consolidation up in the Pacific Northwest today. Fatbeam announced an agreement by which the regional metro fiber builder will acquire its way into the market of Tacoma, Washington. The non-profit EMAN Networks is selling them the 25 miles of network they have in the area. 

Fatbeam has been expanding rapidly from its original turf in Post Falls, Idaho. But until now the expansion has been organic buildouts, bringing new fiber to the central Washington communities of Yakima, Sunnyside, and Cowiche, and lately further westward to Centralia. And just over a week ago they announced a new E-Rate contract that will take them into Butte, Montana.  I imagine Oregon has crossed their mind as well, should the opportunity arise.

Back in Tacoma, EMAN was focused on the education vertical, building fiber for school districts. That fits well with Fatbeam’s model, and they plan to build out additional route miles and upgrade the existing Metro Ethernet backbone to serve the Franklin Pierce School District.

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Categories: Mergers and Acquisitions · Metro fiber