Fiber provider Citizens Mutual Telephone Cooperative — also known as CM Tech — has agreed to buy 100% of the stock of Van Buren Telephone Company in a deal between two southeastern Iowa providers.
The all-cash transaction is expected to close during the first half of this year. The deal is contingent on required stockholder and regulatory approvals. Assuming it closes, Van Buren Telephone subscribers will become members of Citizens Mutual after a transition period.
The deal would enable Citizens Mutual to operate a fiber network of approximately 1,365 square miles and serve approximately 6,100 business and residential customers in the region.
Van Buren Telephone is an all-fiber provider with a footprint of 340 square miles in Iowa’s Van Buren, Jefferson, and Lee Counties. It serves the exchange areas of Birmingham, Bonaparte, Cantril, Keosauqua (where it is headquartered), Mount Sterling, and Stockport.
Citizens Mutual currently has a network of approximately 1,000 square miles and serves Davis, Wapello, Monroe, Appanoose, and Van Buren counties. It was provisionally awarded $11,164,243 in Iowa’s Final Proposal for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. It was also awarded more than $19.1 million in the Empower Rural Iowa funding program in October 2023.
Neither company is a newcomer. Van Buren Telephone was incorporated in 1923 and Citizens Mutual in 1903.
“CM Tech was founded more than a century ago on the belief that rural communities deserve the same high-quality communications services as anywhere else, and that belief continues to guide us today,” Citizens Mutual General Manager Vince Tyson said in a press release.
“This acquisition allows us to build on [Van Buren Telephone’s] strong foundation, continue investing in a state-of-the-art fiber network, and ensure customers and communities across southeast Iowa are well positioned for the future. We are excited to welcome VBT’s employees, customers, and communities into the CM Tech cooperative family.”
