How Zayo Spent $3.7B on Acquisitions
IPO filings are interesting documents to rummage through, as we found out this week when wholesale services specialist Zayo announced it had filed papers with the SEC for a public listing of its stock. (See Zayo Files for IPO.)
Zayo Group Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO) has become famous in the industry for its appetite for acquisitions, having completed 30 in the period between July 2007 and May 2014, with prices ranging from just $15,000 (Northwest Telephone California, May 2009) to $2.21 billion (AboveNet, July 2012).
Check out this table for the full list and then get the background on some of the more significant deals through our story links below.
Table 1: Zayo's Acquisitions July 2007-May 2014
| Date | Name of company acquired | Price paid in $ thousands* |
| July 2007 | Memphis Networx | $9,173 |
| August 2007 | PPL Telecom | $46,301 |
| September 2007 | Indiana Fiber Works | $22,601 |
| November 2007 | Onvoy | $69,962 |
| November 2007 | Voicepipe | $2,800 |
| February 2008 | Citynet Fiber Networks | $99,238 |
| May 2008 | Northwest Telephone | $5,181 |
| July 2008 | CenturyTel Tri-State Markets | $2,700 |
| September 2008 | Columbia Fiber Solutions | $12,091 |
| September 2008 | CityNet Holdings Assets | $3,350 |
| September 2008 | Adesta Assets | $6,430 |
| May 2009 | Northwest Telephone California | $15 |
| September 2009 | FiberNet | $96,571 |
| July 2010 | AGL Networks | $73,666 |
| September 2010 | Dolphini Assets | $235 |
| October 2010 | American Fiber Systems | $114,141 |
| December 2011 | 360networks | $317,891 |
| December 2011 | MarquisNet | $13,581 |
| May 2012 | Arialink | $17,129 |
| Jul 2012 | AboveNet | $2,210,043 |
| Aug 2012 | FiberGate | $118,335 |
| October 2012 | USCarrier | $16,092 |
| December 2012 | FTS | $109,700 |
| December 2012 | Litecast | $22,160 |
| May 2013 | Core NAP | $7,080 |
| August 2013 | Corelink | $1,889 |
| October 2013 | Access | $40,068 |
| October 2013 | FiberLink | $43,137 |
| March 2014 | CoreXchange | $17,503 |
| May 2014 | Geo | $294,228 |
| TOTAL | $3,667,645 | |
| Source: Zayo S-1 filing with the SEC. * All prices are net of cash acquired and includes assumption of debt and capital leases. | ||
Since May, Zayo has struck further deals, closing the €58 million ($78.9 million) acquisition of French operator Neo Telecoms on July 1, and announcing the purchase of the AtlantaNAP data center on July 3 for $52.5 million. (See Zayo Group Acquires AtlantaNAP Data Center.)
For more on some of these deals, see:
- Zayo Buys UK Fiber Network Operator
- Zayo Group Buys CoreXchange
- Zayo Buys FiberLink
- Zayo to Buy Access Communications
- Zayo's Fiber Diet
- Zayo Continues Buying Binge With First Telecom
- Zayo Buys FiberGate
- Zayo to Buy Arialink
- AboveNet Finds $2.2B Buyer in Zayo Group
- Zayo Completes 360 Deal
- Zayo Group to Acquire 360networks
- Zayo to Buy American Fiber
- Zayo to Merge With FiberNet
- Zayo Acquires NW Telephone
- Zayo Acquires Citynet
— Ray Le Maistre, 
, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading
