Zayo acquisition of Access Communications to expand Minnesota fiber footprint

Zayo Group, LLC continues its expansion by acquisition strategy, this time with an agreement to purchase Access Communications, Inc. for $40 million in cash, subject to “certain adjustments.” Access provides metro fiber-optic network services to customers in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN.

Access focuses primarily on dark fiber services for carrier, enterprise, and governmental customers, particularly within the education segment. It owns and operates a 1200-mile metropolitan fiber cable network that connects more than 500 on-net buildings in Minneapolis-St. Paul, including what Zayo asserts are “the area’s major data centers and carrier hotel facilities.”

Zayo already has about 1000 of fiber in the area, derived at least in part by the acquisition of Onvoy (see “Zayo Bandwidth completes Onvoy acquisition”) and American Fiber Systems (see “Zayo Group to acquire American Fiber Systems”). “Given the complementary breadth and depth of its fiber network, the Access transaction is a natural step for Zayo,” said Dan Caruso, president and CEO of Zayo Group. “The acquisition is the latest in a series of major investments supporting the growth of our bandwidth infrastructure business in Minnesota.”

Zayo anticipates a rapid network and operations integration process once the transaction closes, an event the company expects to happen “quickly.”

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