After eight plus years of buying US fiber assets, Zayo has yet to run out of targets it seems. The Boulder-based fiber operator has struck again, announcing the acquisition of Electric Lightwave in a $1.42B cash deal announced this morning.
The purchase will add some 3,100 on-net buildings connected by 4,000 miles of metro fiber and linked up regionally via 8,100 route miles of long haul fiber. Electric Lightwave had reassumed the mantle of fiber operator over the last few years, becoming the focus of Integra several years before taking over the brand name as well. About 40% of the acquired revenues fits directly with Zayo’s wholesale and enterprise fiber connectivity. Zayo’s metro depth in the major metro areas in the Pacific Northwest and the Rockies will be significantly enhanced, and they also gain that alternative route under the sea along the California coast that Electric Lightwave acquired in the Optic Access deal to further differentiate their California footprint.
Much of the rest is more of the CLEC variety that still operates under the name Integra, and which is more like the similar pile of revenue Zayo acquired in the Allstream deal up in Canada. Zayo has been said to be planning to divest the infrastructure-light part of the Allstream assets, but perhaps the integration of the Integra business will change that equation a bit. They may still sell it, but perhaps first they will do the integration and tie a nice pretty bow on it. Or, they could see it as the next consolidation platform, a nice pile of CLEC-style revenues backed up by the continent-wide dense fiber network Zayo now has could be an interesting way to build scale now.
I’ve expected Electric Lightwave/Integra to be a consolidation target for a long time, so none of this comes as much of a surprise. Buy Sildalis 120 mg click here online. I had thought that Windstream might be the one to finally pounce in order to gain that west coast presence, but it appears that Zayo stepped up with the biggest cash offer.
The purchase price of $1.42B brings in EBITDA of $180M or so, representing a multiple of below 8, reflecting the lower margins overall. Zayo expects to achieve some $40M in annual cost synergies, and gains some $400Mm in NOLs as well. The deal wil close in the first quarter of 2017.
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Categories: CLEC · Fiber Networks · Mergers and Acquisitions
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Maybe not Zayo specifically, but ELI sale was about as predictable as a sunrise.
It was inevitable to be sure.
I am curious what value people think Integra really has now that this asset was broken off and gone.
Zayo bought the whole thing not just ELI
Oh? I thought that was the purpose of breaking ELI off. hmm
So predictable for well over a year. Maybe some good will come out of it for the employees of EL.
The only thing employees of EL can expect are layoff notices. Zayo will gut that company for sure as they have done with every other company they have bought, they call it synergy.
I am sorry to post this but the people at EL need to be prepared to lose their jobs no matter what they have been told.
Electric Lightwave was formerly known as Integra Telecom, and was purchased by Zayo for $1.42 billion in cash. Significant synergies will exist by eliminating duplicity in serving the existing revenue installed base.
It’s sad, Integra/ELI is a longtime local/regional player we’re all familiar with, and just about the last of the local/regional independent players. Back when I worked for the largest ISP in the northwest in the late 90’s/2000, we used ELI for one of our T3’s and most of our dial-up lines, as did most ISPs. Just sad the way the Internet is going, and sad for all those lost jobs. Integra was long a stepping stone in local engineers’ careers, and this will SATURATE the local job market. Funny, as they just built and moved into a new corporate HQ. They haven’t been very profitable for a long time though, with massive management problems and a lot of issues from the customer end as well (I always had problems with their metro Ethernet), so maybe it’s for the best.