Lightower Fiber Networks to Merge with Fibertech Networks

Lightower Fiber Networks, a leading provider of custom, high-capacity network services that ensure optimal application and business performance, and Fibertech Networks, a leading provider of fiber-optic based network services throughout mid-size cities in the Eastern and Central regions of the United States, announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to merge. The agreement is an all-cash transaction valued at $1.9 billion, which will be funded through a combination of equity and debt. The combined company will be led by current Lightower CEO, Rob Shanahan. The merger is pending regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2015. The combined company will own and operate a high-performance, fiber-based network throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. The company will offer customers over 30,000 route miles of fiber network providing access to nearly 5,000 wireless towers and almost 13,000 on-net service locations, including commercial buildings, data centers, financial exchanges, content hubs and other critical communications facilities.