Western CLEC and fiber operator Integra Telecom has a new face in charge. Kevin O’Hara has been named executive chairman, taking over the CEO duties from Tom Casey who has left to become CEO of Tronox. O’Hara has been on Integra’s board for two years and its chairman for six months.
Prior to that of course, O’Hara was President and COO of Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) for a decade. Integra’s recent increased investment in its fiber footprint already has his fingerprints on it, so I doubt we are looking at a shift in the company’s strategy.
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congratulation to Keven O Hara. A person who I felt was wrongfully scapegoated during the LEvel 3 MNS integration “toe stubbing”. Buying 7 companies and trying to simultaneously integret while simultaneously building a new back office system, while simultaneouly trying to fix and maitain the rvenues form the dialup internt, Wiltel ATT contract,as well as spend money on the Telcove/ICG assest which were not maintained ( which was why they were bankrupt) and had minimal capacity remaining to sell was going to fail whoever was in charge.
I would argue new management didnt fix level 3, 3 years and 200 million of investments, network audits, and migration to new system, that happens with KOH or without. Now migrating 1 Global crosing will seem smooth but Level 3 did a smaller version og Global with Genuity back in teh day and it was flawless. I look for Global to integret with no issues at all and KOH to get bashed again unjustly.
I hope this doesn’t result in LVLT trying to buy Integra somewhere down the road.
You never know. When a CEO just simply leaves without even a phone call to the employee’s. It’s does not leave a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Blaming TelCove/ICG for Level 3 failures is like blaming the iceberg for the Titanic. IF those assets were distressed (and I disagree that they were), Level 3 should not have bought them. Good or bad, icebergs are to be avoided and NOT steared into. Let’s hope he smarter than to stear into another iceberg by changing course.