The sale of fiber network infrastructure provider FiberLight, LLC to a consortium led by funds managed by global infrastructure investment firm H.R.L. Morrison & Co., Australian Retirement Trust (ART), and a managed client of UBS Asset Management has closed. The new regime has named Bill Major as CEO, effective immediately. Peter Gallagher has been named chief operating officer as well.
The consortium announced the agreement to buy FiberLight from Thermo Companies last July (see “Consortium of funds to buy fiber network service provider FiberLight”). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Major takes over from former CEO Christopher Rabii. Major has more than 20 years of leadership experience in telecommunications. He joins FiberLight from Everstream Solutions, LLC, which provides enterprise and wholesale fiber services in the U.S. Midwest.
“Bill is a proven executive who brings a wealth of infrastructure knowledge, telecommunications experience, and transformative leadership capabilities to FiberLight as the company builds its team and expands its footprint,” said Perry Offutt, partner and head of North America at Morrison & Co and chair of FiberLight’s board of directors. “He is a purposeful changemaker with a customer-first approach and is the ideal individual to lead the company forward in pursuit of continued growth and scale. On behalf of the consortium, we look forward to partnering with Bill and the FiberLight team to broaden and enhance essential connectivity services to businesses across the U.S.”
“I am pleased to join FiberLight at this exciting moment with the support of Morrison & Co., a leading global infrastructure investor, as well as our other impressive new shareholders,” Major commented. “FiberLight’s state-of-the-art networks will continue to attract high levels of demand, and our focus will be to support that demand by retaining proven talent within the organization while further fostering a culture of excellence and best-in-class customer service. I am eager to begin working closely with the team to provide world-class networking solutions and exceptional experiences for our customers, partners, and people as we work towards being the best provider in the market not just for today’s digitally enabled businesses, but for future generations.”
FiberLight operates approximately 18,000 route miles of fiber network infrastructure with 78,000 pre-qualified near-net buildings in more than 30 metropolitan areas in the U.S. Its product portfolio includes high-capacity Ethernet and wave transport services, cloud connect, dedicated internet access, dark fiber, and wireless backhaul. It focuses on such customers as domestic and international telecom companies as well as wireless, wireline, cable, and cloud providers and enterprise, government, and educational organizations. The new owners say they will provide “increased financial flexibility” to invest in network expansion.
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