BCE to Buy Ziply

In an M&A move that I somehow missed during the election chaos, BCE through its Bell Canada subsidiary has announced plans to acquire Ziply Fiber for about C$7B including assumed debt. The move by Bell will give it a significant foothold in the US fiber marketplace.

Ziply was largely created out of part of Frontier’s former assets in the northwest, which were bought by WaveDivision Capital four and a half years ago. Ziply went on to invest heavily in the company’s fiber infrastructure, expanding its FTTx program such that it now has 1.3M fiber locations on-net with plans to reach 3M over the next 4 years. Bell anticipates the combined company will hit 12M locations throughout North America in 2028.

Financially, Bell will pay C$5.0B in cash for the deal, funding it largely from the proceeds of its own divestiture of its stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) to Rogers. BCE says that the deal values Ziply at 14.3 times 2025 EBITDA, including run-rate synergies. They expect to close the deal in the second half of 2025, and will operate Ziply as a separate business unit.

Might BCE have further ambitions to expand south of the US-Canadian border? There are certainly other FTTx options available to them in adjacent territories. But initially I expect they will have their hands full integrating and operating Ziply, which like all former ILEC assets comes with a fair amount of legacy baggage.

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Categories: FTTH · ILECs, PTTs · Mergers and Acquisitions