Intermetro Fiber, a Florida infrastructure provider that does business as South Reach Networks (SRN), has been acquired by Blue Owl Capital’s Digital Infrastructure fund.
No financial details about the transaction were included in the press release.
SRN provides dark and lit fiber infrastructure in a 370-mile network from Jacksonville to Miami. It connects with five colocation edge facilities that are also owned by SRN along the route. Overall, the network is on-net or near 40 data centers, colocation facilities, and cable landing stations.
Scott Bergs, who is now CEO of Dark Fiber and Infrastructure (“DF&I”), another Blue Owl portfolio company, will assume the role of CEO of SRN as well. DF&I operates along the east coast of Virginia and Maryland.
“South Reach Networks has established itself as the premier communications infrastructure provider in Florida, delivering critical dark fiber, colocation and related services to subsea cable providers and users, data centers, carriers and other private network operators,” Bergs said in a press release about the SRN/Blue Owl deal.
“With Blue Owl, we will scale the business to meet the ever-growing need for more fiber from Jacksonville to Miami and beyond.”
Blue Owl, which will acquire SRN, had $273 billion in assets under management at the end of March. The company employs more than 1,200 people.
This was the second piece of telecommunications news in the Sunshine State this week. Fiber provider Tillman Fiber Co. said it has launched services in Hernando County and the cities of Northport, Kissimmee, and Deltona. Residents can gain access to gigabit speed broadband through T-Mobile Fiber over the Tillman network.
The SRN/Blue Owl deal bodes well for what FloridaCommerce called “major initiative to deliver the required workforce to upgrade the state’s communications networks.” Announced in late April, the effort also includes CareerSource Florida, the REACH Office,
the Florida Department of Education, state and technical colleges, Local Workforce Development Boards, and others.
