In a deal that would focus on Virginia Beach and Richmond, Virginia, networking provider FiberLight LLC will acquire Metro Fiber Networks if a definitive agreement the companies signed closes.
The deal is expected to close during the second half of this year. The press release offered no details on the transaction.
If completed, FiberLight will gain a path that crosses the York River and Hampton Harbor to connect the Virginia Beach Cable Landing Station and Richmond. The press release says that the cable landing station supports trans-Atlantic and U.S.-Latin America traffic.
FiberLight claims that, in acquiring Metro Fiber Networks, the link it is acquiring is the shortest and lowest latency between the two locations. “This transaction marks a significant milestone for FiberLight as we expand our network to reach Virginia Beach, which hosts the largest defense installation outside of the Pentagon and the largest CLS in the US,” FiberLight CEO Bill Major said in the announcement.
“The MFN assets are a natural extension of our existing network and will allow us to provide customers with reliable, high-speed connectivity services to various organizations in Virginia.”
FiberLight says that the Metro Fiber Networks holdings, once acquired, will be integrated into the firm’s infrastructure in Northern Virginia and enable expansion in Charlotte, Virginia, Atlanta, Georgia, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
In April, 2023 FiberLight was acquired by a consortium led by Australian private investment firm Morrison. FiberLight told Telecompetitor that it planned to focus on enterprise opportunities that generate recurring revenue. At the time of the acquisition, FiberLight operated in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
The company made the news at least twice last year. In February, it made a $20 million investment in a 100-mile fiber deployment along a Texas highway that would support autonomous vehicle development and other “intelligent infrastructure zone” applications. The project was to be undertaken with the Autonomy Institute, a 501c3 nonprofit organization.
Several months later — in August — FiberLight was selected to build a 10 Gbps fiber network for the Region 16 Education Services Center (ESC) in the Panhandle area of Texas.
