UC M&A: Momentum to Acquire Alteva

Yesterday saw yet another piece of consolidation in the world of VoIP and unified communications.  Alabama-based Momentum Telecom has entered into an agreement to acquire Alteva for $28.7M, or $4.70 per share.  

Alteva’s main focus these days has been on cloud-based UC on a BroadSoft platform.  But they still also operate as an RLEC in southern Orange County, New York, along the border with northern New Jersey, where they were once called Warwick Valley Telephone.  Of their $7.8M revenues in Q2 2015, $4.5M were from unified communications.  However, the modern focus never really found the momentum they had hoped for, and some sort of strategic alternative like this had seemed likely for some time.

One year ago today Alteva adopted a poison pill after getting a bid from a private equity group that was not to its liking.  In the first half of the year they returned some cash to shareholders via a special dividend of $2.60 per share.

For its part, Momentum Telecom has charted a channel-oriented path augmented by small acquisitions.  In 2013 they acquired Twist Networks, while in 2014 they acquired IBBS.  The purchase of Alteva will boost their users to move than 250,000 and give them some additional scale.  Scale has become increasingly important in the business VoIP and UC space lately, with the bigger fish like Vonage and Mitel actively acquiring smaller brethren.

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Categories: Mergers and Acquisitions · Unified Communications · VoIP