Competitive telecommunications provider Cavalier Telephone unveiled its new, independently run Intellifiber Networks unit today, to be headed by industry veteran Clint Heiden. The company debuts with more than 16,000 route miles of fiber, 400+ PoPs, and 700+ on-net buildings, mostly within an area bounded by Chicago, Boston, and Raleigh and concentrated in the mid-Atlantic states. Cavtel has generally focused on the consumer segment and on enterprises in its main turf, the new move is intended to find a way to generate better value out of their fiber assets. Of course, these are not new assets.
While Cavtel brought some of its own to the mix, much of Intellifiber was last seen in the form of Elantic Networks. Elantic itself emerged from the rubble of Dominion Telecom, the unsuccessful fiber foray of the energy conglomerate. Dominion strung together fiber IRUs from Level 3, Wiltel, and Adelphia Business Solutions – (all of which are now just Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings)) back in the bubble, along with metro assets purchased from Telergy. The customer base is mostly wholesale with a bit of federal, but Intellifiber says it intends to expand its focus and make its case to the enterprise as well.
I had been wondering what might happen over at Cavtel since Danny Bottoms, formerly of OnFiber and well acquainted with the metro fiber business, resurfaced there. I do wonder what their next move is. The formation of Intellifiber implies either that it is for sale, or it is looking to buy more. After all, these assets do not have a long history of success, they have always seemed like a puzzle piece looking for a home. As a private company, their finances are not public and we have no way of knowing if they have the resources to buy assets, however there certainly are some available that would fit.
Actually, come to think of it, the asset fit with Zayo is a very nice one, hmmm.
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Categories: Mergers and Acquisitions · Metro fiber
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A bit late on commenting, but…
I’d say that the “good fit” with Zayo was notably reduced after Zayo bought PPL. Still, Intellifiber would bring unique assets in Upstate NY and Eastern Virginia but that is about it.
In response to “these assets do not have a long history of success”, in terms of a M&A that pays off big for the investors, I suppose this is true, but on the flip side, they survived the dark fiber bust, the dotcom bust and now they seem well positioned to survive the “free market” bust, all while expanding from a small start-up in 1999 to a force to be respected. I think if the economy revives and M&As in telecom start coming back in vogue, their time will come. That said, right now I suspect they are content with growing IntelliFiber’s bottom line. Danny B will make that happen.
Thought – $86M for Fibernet means IntellFiber should be worth 10 times that.
Side quote “Socialism is great until someone else’s money runs out” – “By ?”, but what do I know… I’m heavily invested in banking, automotive and soon healthcare.
I think some overlap is good, there are synergies to be had. Regarding success of the assets, survival is easy – all assets survived the bubble, it’s the owners that bailed multiple times! They are certainly worth more now than they used to be though.