Zayo Takes Over 60 Hudson Meet-Me-Room

Regional telecom provider Zayo Group has acquired FiberNet Telecom Group, which provides colocation and connectivity between major carrier hotels. Ar part of the deal, Zayo will become the manager and operator of the 60 Hudson St. Meet-Me-Room in New York City, along with interconnection facilities at 111 8th Avenue in Manhattan, 165 Halsey in New Jersey and key buildings in Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles.

"The strategic foundation of Zayo Group is to provide bandwidth infrastructure services to carriers, internet companies, and other large consumers of bandwidth," explained Dan Caruso, CEO of Zayo Group. "FiberNet’s important role in providing connectivity in and between the major carrier hotels is a natural extension of Zayo’s bandwidth services."

The closing ends a takeover process that began when Zayo and Fibernet announced a deal in May, only to have RCN Communications launch a competing bid in June, and then drop out a month later.

Zayo was launched in 2006 and focuses on bandwidth, voice and managed services, with a fiber network that operates in 23 states. Backed by $325 million in equity from seven investors (including Oak Investment Partners and Battery Ventures), Zayo has made 11 acqusiitions since 2007. The Fibernet deal provides Zayo a footprint in some of the most wired telecom buildings in the New York market, along with connectivity to key hubs in other cities.

"FiberNet has a deep presence in the most important telecommunications buildings in the U.S., particularly the greater New York / New Jersey metro region," said John Scarano, President of Zayo Bandwidth. "Zayo extends the on-net reach to hundreds of other important telecom buildings across the Northeast and Midwest regions of the United States. FiberNet and Zayo customers will all have opportunities to benefit from the combination."

For more background on the deal, see Rob Powell's writeup at Telecom Ramblings and a blog post by Caruso.