This marks FirstLight’s fourth acquisition this year following on from its purchases of Oxford Networks, Sovernet Communications and Finger Lakes Technologies Group (FLTG).
Back in July FirstLight first announced that it was entering into a definitive agreement to buy 186 Communications and three months later the deal is complete for an undisclosed amount.
Commenting on the news, Kurt Van Wagenen, FirstLight president and CEO, said: “The past year has been a momentous one of growth and advancement for FirstLight, and today’s completed acquisition of 186 Communications further strengthens FirstLight’s position to best serve our customers. We are excited to officially combine our operations with 186, and in doing so, extend our network reach even deeper into Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.”
The deal will mean that FirstLight will become of the largest fibre-based communications provider in the Northeast of the US, by combining 186’s high-capacity fibre network in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont with its own fibre network and portfolio of data, Internet, data centre, cloud and voice services.
“We have greatly anticipated this day. Now as a single organization, FirstLight is well equipped to continue to serve the growing bandwidth needs of businesses throughout the Northeast,” added Rob Carmichael, CEO of 186 Communications.
In total FirstLight will now operate approximately 14,000 route miles of high-capacity fibre connecting nearly 8,000 locations and twelve data centres with more than 225,000 square feet of space.
Scott Baker and Benjy Diesbach, partners at Oak Hill and members of the FirstLight Board of directors, said: “The acquisition of 186 represents yet another notable achievement for FirstLight. As the fourth in a series of successful acquisitions over the past twelve months, we can confidently say that FirstLight is well positioned to further accelerate growth, and we are excited for all of the opportunities that these acquisitions will continue to create for FirstLight.”
