Birch Communications on Monday reached an agreement to acquire Port Charlotte, Fla.-based DayStar Communications' assets.
While neither company revealed the dollar amount, Birch said that the deal, which includes the purchase of customer and network assets, will close in Q3 2012.
By acquiring DayStar, Birch will put another piece in its effort to expand its network and service presence in southwest Florida.
In addition to Florida, the Atlanta-based CLEC said that DayStar provides services throughout a number of other markets in southwest Florida and services to multi-site businesses that have locations in other states. Like Birch, DayStar provides a mix of local and long distance voice, broadband Internet access, T1, PRI, bonded T1, hosted services and voicemail services.
"Through this acquisition, Birch continues its recent expansion into southwest Florida," said Vincent M. Oddo, Birch president and CEO, in a release announcing the acquisition. "DayStar's Metaswitch-based facilities network, and many thousands of SMB customers, fit very well into our growing facilities-based enterprise."
Oddo added that over the course of the coming months and years, it plans "to continue the expansion of our customer base, our service footprint and the scope of our products and services to better serve our SMB customer base."
Florida has been one of many of Birch's major growth targets. In April, the CLEC completed its acquisition of the former AstroTel.
This is the sixteenth acquisition the CLEC has made since 2006. Birch's DayStar acquisition is part of what it says is a dual strategy to up customer density and expand the footprint of its private IP-based network through what it calls "tuck-in" acquisitions and its own growth initiatives such as the launch of its wholesale service business.
Having completed a recent refinancing effort and received more funding for equipment purchases, it's likely that Birch will be making other deals throughout 2012 that fulfill its growth strategy.
For more:
- see the release
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