Regional operator Horizon has acquired Consolidated Cooperative’s commercial fiber business in Ohio. The deal adds 450 fiber miles to augment Horizon’s existing Columbus network and extend northward through Delaware, Marion and Richland counties.
Consolidated Cooperative’s separate residential fiber business was not part of the deal.
Horizon says that Consolidated’s commercial clients will see no disruptions and will continue to be served according to the terms of their contracts.
Horizon has more than 5,500 route miles of fiber in the midwest. It serves SMBs, enterprise customers, and is a wholesale carrier offering high speed Ethernet, Dedicated Internet Access, hosted voice/UCaaS, dark fiber, wavelength services and data center connectivity services.
“Horizon remains committed to expanding its network capabilities and geographic reach in order to continue meeting the evolving communications and connectivity needs of businesses and communities throughout the Midwest,” Horizon CEO James Capuano said in a press release about the Horizon fiber network acquisition.
This is the next step for the company, which was profiled by Telecompetitor last November. Horizon — which began operations more than a century ago as Chillicothe Telephone — focuses on rural areas of southeast Ohio as well as the Columbus and Dayton metros. The company has been a portfolio investment of private equity firm Novacap TMT since 2018.
Horizon sees healthcare organizations and municipalities as anchors and has focused on county seats. A milestone for the company was winning a contract to provide connectivity to the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League.
Glenn Lytle, Horizon’s Chief Revenue Officer, suggests that locality is a key benefit offered by the company. Larger carriers, he told Telecompetitor, tend to be “focused upstream.” Local businesses see the company as a good secondary provider because it is positioned to offer geographically diverse routes to its locations.
Horizon is no stranger to acquisitions for growth, using the strategy to grow its footprint into Indiana.
