Broadwing Inc. agreed to sell its broadband business, Broadwing Communications Services Inc., including the Broadwing name, to privately held C III Communications, LLC, for $129 million in cash. The sale includes Broadwing's 18,700 mile national fiber network, its all-optical switching platform, a state-of-the-art network operations center and all the other network elements necessary to provide its integrated and managed broadband telecommunications services. The Broadwing Communications business provides wholesale transportation services to major telecommunications carriers, broadband telecommunications services to some 1,000 corporate customers in 137 of the top 150 markets across the US, and long-distance service to 150,000 customers. The acquiring company, C III Communications, will assume certain long-term operating liabilities of Broadwing Communications Services, will continue to serve its customers and will retain current employees. C III Communications' investors include Cequel III, LLC, an investment and management company based in St. Louis, Missouri, and Corvis Corporation, which supplied its long-haul optical transmission platform to Broadwing. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by the Federal Communications Commission and relevant state public utility commissions. Broadwing Inc.'s local communications subsidiary, Cincinnati Bell, will remain a customer of Broadwing Communications Services and will continue to market its services.
http://www.broadwing.com
- Cequel III was founded in January 2002 as a privately held company whose mission is to acquire or invest in telecommunication companies that offer platforms for future acquisitions and industry consolidation. In May 2002, Cequel III made equity investments in and assumed management of AAT Communications Corporation, which owns or manages more than 6,000 tower sites across the US. On February 12, 2003, Cequel III announced that it had assumed management of and agreed to invest in Classic Communications, a cable provider with 325,000 subscribers. On February 21, Cequel III announced its intention to acquire Shaw Communications' Texas-based cable systems, which serve approximately 27,000 customers.
- In January, Broadwing Inc. announced plans to take non-cash, pre-tax asset impairment charge of approximately $2 billion for Q4 2002 to write-down the value of its broadband unit, Broadwing Communications. Its all-optical switched network is based on Corvis' long-haul platform and CIENA's CoreDirector optical switching systems.
