"Growth demands a temporary surrender of security."
-Gail Sheehy
June 28,2018
C Spire, Nation’s Largest Privately Owned Carrier, Acquires TekLinks
Financial Information*
- Terms of the transaction not disclosed
Transaction Facts
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C Spire, the largest privately owned wireless carrier and sixth largest carrier in the country, announced today its acquisition of Birmingham, Alabama-based managed service provider TekLinks Inc.
- C Spire expects to complete the acquisition and merger integration process within the next 60 to 80 days.
Expanding Quickly Into Growing Markets
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Enterprise Services Expansion: This deal creates an end-to-end company that can deliver a full suite of IT services and marks the start of an aggressive expansion campaign — the combined company will be the top end-to-end IT enterprise services provider in the Southeast. In addition, the move allows the company to both accelerate and expand its focus on innovative voice, data, IT and cloud solutions. Last year, C Spire launched an initiative to bring fiber-based 1GPS ultra high-speed internet access to SMB companies in Mississippi, highlighting the company’s adoption to newer technologies in demand.
- Positive Pivot: C Spire, headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi, was able to diversify quickly into other growing segments of the market, including wireless, home Internet and TV, and business and cloud. Now the company is the country’s largest privately owned carrier, competing against public industry behemoths.
- Geographical Dominance: Meanwhile, TekLinks, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, was founded in 2000 and expanded successfully in its operating regions; the company had $146 million in sales in 2017. Private equity firm Pamlico Capital made a significant equity investment to acquire a majority interest in the company in 2012.
- One by One: With the backing of private equity, TekLinks was able to expand successfully with several acquisitions, including Nashville-based IT Services company Guidant Partners in December 2016 and Knoxville-based cloud service provider Claris Networks in May 2015. In 2013, the company merged with healthcare MSP ClinicAnywhere (formerly ETG).
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Tight Race: The competitive wireless market will see a big shift in the future as blockbuster M&A deals set the tone. It remains to be seen how AT&T’s foray into media, with its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner, will affect the industry — fresh off its Time Warner green light, AT&T announced yesterday its acquisition of advertising company AppNexus. However, C Spire has been able to capture growth through its expansion into enterprise services, and perhaps has a unique opportunity to win over business through its higher-end offerings. If recent success provides any indication, C Spire was awarded with a statewide landline services contract with Mississippi that is currently being contested by AT&T.
For more information about this transaction, click here to read the press release.
martinwolf was not the advisor in this transaction.
