A significant fiber deal landed this morning out in the Midwest. Everstream has announced that it has reached an agreement to sell substantially all of its operations to Bluebird Fiber. The deal would combine two of the largest regional independent fiber builder/operators.
It’s not a straight up deal though. Everstream will be starting a Chapter 11 process, and Bluebird will be the stalking horse. That means other bidders could still swoop in for all or part of the assets and operations. Everstream had already been looking to ease pressure, having sold its St. Louis and Illinois businesses and begun winding down its presence in Pennsylvania. The process will take a while, as all Chapter 11 proceedings do, but they hope to complete things by the end of the year.
But if Bluebird is successful, they anticipate retaining the majority of the company’s employees across its footprint. That footprint would take Bluebird into all of the Rust Belt and to the edges of the MidAtlantic. Everstream has a deep presence across Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and the Indianapolis metro area. That’s adjacent to Bluebird’s footprint centers on Missouri and Illinois, with extensions into Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Indiana, and a few isolated bits in Wisconsin and Indiana.
Bluebird, which is backed by Macquarie, has been looking increasingly hungry of late. We had CEO Jason Adkins here a few months ago to talk about his plans for the future.
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Categories: Fiber Networks · Mergers and Acquisitions · Metro fiber
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