The evolution of Cox Communications' strategy to deliver fiber-based services to commercial business services continued this week with word that the company will acquire the remaining interest in United Private Networks (UPN) and combine it with Segra.

Cox didn't announce the financial terms of the deal with fellow UPN investor Ridgemont Equity Partners, but expects the agreement to close by June 30.

The plan is "bring UPN and Segra together to create a new, standalone company that continues to offer our customers a broad portfolio of commercial business services," Cox President Mark Greatrex said in a statement.

Figure 1: (Source: Kristoffer Tripplaar/Alamy Stock Photo)

It was not immediately clear if the newly combined company will be called Segra or if a completely new name will be chosen. Cox said it was not commenting beyond the details of the announcement while the deal was still in the process of closing.

However, Segra CEO Kevin Hart will lead the combined company as CEO, and Jason Adkins, UPN's CEO, will report to Hart and serve as president of the new company, Cox said.

Cox became the majority owner of UPN in 2016. UPN's network includes about 12,000 fiber route miles and roughly 9,500 end customer sites. Its core fiber networks serve parts of Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico and Texas.

UPN's services mix spans dark fiber, Metro Ethernet, colocation services, cloud connect and SD-WAN for several industry segments, including enterprise, carrier wireless and wireline, K-12 education, government and healthcare.

UPN's focus fits in with Segra's. Cox acquired Segra in 2022, adding a commercial enterprise and carrier business focused on the US mid-Atlantic and Southwestern regions. That deal tied into other Cox enterprise-focused investments that include EasyTel, EdgeConnex, InSite Wireless, StackPath and ViaWest. Cox acquired Logicworks, a managed cloud services provider, earlier this year.

Eye on expansion

Hart, Cox's former CTO and an exec late of Level 3 Communications and Clearwire, told Light Reading last year that expansion would top the agenda as he took the helm of Segra. Segra was originally formed by the combination of Lumos Networks and Spirit Communications in 2018 and provides services such as Ethernet WAN, managed Wi-Fi, SD-WAN and hosted voice, disaster recover-as-a-service and data centers.

"Part of our growth ambition is to look for opportunities in the fiber space, particularly those that are adjacent to our properties," Hart said then. "There's insatiable demand for fiber and bandwidth and connectivity, so that's a big part of our plan."

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading