Cox in talks to snap up Segra's enterprise unit – report

Cox Communications is in "advanced talks" to acquire the enterprise business of fiber provider Segra from EQT in a deal that could be valued at more than $3 billion, including debt, Bloomberg reported.

The deal, which could be announced as early as this week, is likely to combine the Segra unit with Cox Business, the report added, noting that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Segra intends to hold onto its residential business.

Segra, formed by EQT through the combination and rebranding of Lumos Networks and Spirit Communications, operates about 1 million fiber-strand miles and 30,000 fiber-route miles stretching from Georgia to Pennsylvania, with a focus on SONET, IP, Ethernet and dark fiber architectures. The company also touts 10,400 on-net locations and nine data centers, but doesn't break out what portion is tied to its enterprise and residential businesses.

Figure 1: A portion of Segra's network map.
(Source: Segra)
Click here for a larger version of this image.

A deal for Segra's enterprise unit could provide fresh growth potential or Cox Communications, which acquired RapidScale, a cloud services company, in 2018. Last year, Cox Communications and Juniper Networks led a $216 million Series B round in StackPath, a company focused on stitching together a global content delivery network with an edge cloud that can run services across both. Cox, which declined to comment on the Bloomberg report, said it generated about $2.6 billion in business services revenues in 2020.

Word of a potential Cox/Segra deal comes amid a recent report that EQT is teaming with Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners on a possible takeover bid of KPN. EQT acquired EdgeConnex last August, and was part of a group that acquired Zayo Group Holdings last March.

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading