Last week, Berkshire Partners announced it was brokering a deal, which is valued at $2 billion, that will merge Lightower Fiber Networks and Sidera Networks once it’s completed.
New York-based Sidera Networks was formerly RCN Metro Optical Networks until Abry Partners spun it off from RCN in 2010. Rumors of Sidera being for sale first surfaced last year.
Sidera Networks has a fiber-rich network that services financial institutions in New York City and New Jersey with colocation and Metro Ethernet offerings. Sidera’s network also stretches to Portland, Maine; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; and Toronto.
M/C Partners and Pamlico Capital bought Lightower from National Grid in 2007. Pamlico Capital, a significant Lightower investor, and Abry Partners will remain as investors in the new company, which will operate under the Lightower brand.
Current Lightower CEO, Rob Shanahan, will lead the combined company. The merger has to pass regulatory approval but is slated to close in the second quarter of this year.
“Lightower and Sidera together will offer customers an industry-leading, fiber-based network with a deeply experienced team supporting it,” Shanahan said. “Both companies have a shared vision of network excellence, customized solutions and superior customer support. Once merged, we will offer customers more services, more routes and more access options with the same high levels of performance, diversity, reliability and support that our customers have come to expect from us.”
Following the merger, the combined company will operate a fiber-based network throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, with connections to critical landing sites and exchanges internationally. The combined network will offer customers more than 20,000 route miles and provide access to more than 6,000 on-net locations, including commercial buildings, data centers, financial exchanges, content hubs and other critical interconnection facilities.
“This combination is highly complementary,” said Sidera CEO Mike Sicoli. “The broad reach and scale of our combined network, the cumulative expertise of our dedicated employees, and our shared passion for customer service and satisfaction will set the new company apart and deliver tangible benefits to our customers.”
