It’s a familiar pattern in the world of communications. A company purchases another. Excitement ensues. And then, the layoffs come.
That is the pattern we’re seeing again in the wake of Zayo’s recent acquisition of Electric Lightwave. Telecom Ramblings recently reported that Zayo will eliminate 200 of the 1,100 jobs at Electric Lightwave. That reportedly includes 10 percent of those at Electric Lightwave’s Vancouver, Wash., headquarters. However, Zayo reportedly says it’s hiring more than 400 people in the Portland/Vancouver/Lake Oswego area.
Zayo completed the acquisition of Electric Lightwave earlier this month in a $1.4 billion cash arrangement. Electric Lightwave has 8,100 route miles of long-haul fiber, 4,000 miles of metro fiber, and serves 35 western U.S. markets.
The infrastructure-focused businesses at Electric Lightwave will be integrated into Zayo’s Dark Fiber and Network Connectivity efforts in short order, according to Zayo. Meanwhile, Zayo will fold Electric Lightwave’s unified communication business into its own Canadian SME and voice businesses.
Electric Lightwave and Zayo in recent months have been part of an elaborate game of musical chairs within the network operator marketplace.
Electric Lightwave had previously been part of Integra Telecom (News - Alert) Holdings. But it was split off from Integra last year.
Meanwhile, Zayo has acquired many companies in recent years.
- In February of 2015, Zayo closed its $675 million acquisition of colocation and infrastructure-as-a-service provider Latisys Holdings LLC. That gave Zayo eight new data centers, increasing its billable data center space to 503,000 square feet.
- In January of 2016, Zayo closed the acquisition of Allstream Inc. That gave it more than 18,000 additional route miles of fiber, including 12,500 miles of long-haul fiber connecting all major Canadian markets and 5,500 route miles of metro fiber connecting about 3,300 on-net buildings mostly in Canada’s top five metropolitan markets.
- And in November of 2016, Zayo completed the $12.8 million acquisition of a data center in Santa Clara, Calif.
Edited by Alicia Young