Windstream wraps Broadview acquisition, rounds out business services management team

Windstream has completed its $227.5 million acquisition of Broadview Networks, realigning its business services management team to pursue new cloud and SD-WAN service opportunities.

With the acquisition now complete, Windstream named Brian Crotty, COO of Broadview, has been named president of the mid-market and small business division.

Tony Thomas
Tony Thomas

Tony Thomas, CEO of Windstream said in a release that Crotty “is an effective leader and the right choice to drive this strategy at Windstream and lead this business unit, which will have annual revenues of approximately $1 billion.”

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Crotty will be in charge of segments that are showing varying growth patterns for Windstream.

While it won’t report its second quarter earnings until Thursday, Windstream reported in the first quarter that enterprise service revenues were $516 million, up 5% from the same period a year ago, and contribution margin was $83 million compared to $71 million year-over-year. Meanwhile, ILEC consumer and small business service revenues were $391 million, down 1.5% from the same period a year ago, and contribution margin was $222 million compared to $228 million year-over-year.

A number of other Broadview management team members are also joining Windstream:

  • Mario Deriggi, SVP of sales.
  • Stephen Farkouh, SVP of cloud technology and platform development.
  • Sanjay Patel, VP of platform development; and
  • Tim Bell, VP of integration management and Broadview operations.

By acquiring Broadview, Windstream adding a broader set of SD-WAN and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) offerings to its small to medium-sized business (SMB) customer base. Windstream can use its larger scale to further the transition from legacy TDM services to cloud-based UCaaS Broadview began for its customers prior to the acquisition.

UCaaS is heading on a strong growth trajectory. According to IDC, the UCaaS market is set to grow from $38 billion to a $43 billion market by 2020.

Windstream said it expects to realize approximately $30 million in annual operating synergies within two years. The transaction also will improve Windstream’s balance sheet by reducing leverage through the realization of synergies and will be accretive to free cash flow in the first year.