EarthLink Buys Telecom Services Company One Communications For $370 Million

EarthLink this morning announced that it will acquire telecom services provider One Communications for $370 million, which includes payment of roughly $285 million of the latter’s net debt. One Comm stockholders have the right to elect to receive the net merger consideration in the form of cash or EarthLink common stock.

The merger has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and the stockholders of One Communications.

One Communications, with corporate headquarters in Burlington, MA and operational headquarters in Rochester, NY, is one of the largest privately held integrated telecom solutions providers in the US, with approximately 1,500 employees.

The company offers a wide range of data, voice and integrated voice/data solutions that scale with bandwidths ranging from T1s to fiber-based speeds, serving approximately 113,000 small and mid-sized business customers across 17 states.

EarthLink in a press statement says the acquisition of One Communications will provide it with a strong IP network footprint in the Northeast, Midwest, and Mid Atlantic regions, overlapping connection cities with EarthLink Business (formerly Deltacom) long-haul routes in certain markets and geographical expansion and scale for its managed IP services product strategy.

EarthLink basically plans to integrate One Comm into its newly established EarthLink Business division, which currently consists of products and capabilities of its former New Edge Network, Deltacom and EarthLink Business Solutions divisions.

The closing of the merger is of course subject to the satisfaction of several conditions, including receipt of required regulatory approvals from the FCC and certain state public utilities commissions. Subject to the fulfillment of these conditions, the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2011.