CDN Top 5 Solution Provider OnX has been acquired as part of a three-way deal by service provider Cincinnati Bell Inc.
Cincinnati Bell acquired OnX for US$201 million and then spent another US$650 million on Hawaiian Telcom, Inc.
Cincinnati Bell is essentially a telephone company that is the prime service provider for the city of Cincinnati and sister city Dayton in the State of Ohio. According to Brand Finance, Cincinnati Bell is the 135th ranking telecom provider in the world and No. 24 in the U.S.
One of the reasons Cincinnati Bell gave for the OnX acquisition is the company wants to advance its refined strategy to focus on growing its business in two distinct areas: network communications and enterprise IT services. Cincinnati Bell has a networking business and has been investing it in by accelerating its fiber build and now wants to expand its portfolio of enterprise networking, unified communications and data centre solutions through OnX. It also aspires to be a cloud integrator for both voice and data.
Cincinnati Bell also believes it can extending its geographic footprint with these two deals.
Leigh Fox, President and CEO of Cincinnati Bell, said cloud migration and the need for fiber infrastructure that supports 5G-ready, high-density data transmission and IoT are the key trends that will define telecommunications in the future. The implementation of our refined strategy, coupled with today’s combinations, will help build two distinct businesses with the appropriate scale, structure and leadership to deliver superior operating results, while providing strategic optionality from a diversified but complementary portfolio of assets.
Fox added, the acquisition of OnX adds meaningful scale, service offerings, free cash flow generation, and customer diversification to Cincinnati Bell’s IT services business and supports the company’s transformation to a Hybrid IT provider. Specifically, the transaction will expand the company’s footprint to 20 plus IT sales offices and provide access to more than 50 data centres through strategic partners, significantly increasing Cincinnati Bell’s presence in the U.S. and Canada.
Tom Signorello, the CEO of OnX, said the Richmond Hill, Ont.-based solution provider is joining the Cincinnati Bell family to focus on becoming a cloud integrator capable of delivering innovative IT solutions and cloud services.
According to Cincinnati Bell, it anticipates the OnX transaction will close in the beginning of the fourth quarter 2017.
Second channel acquisition
Digital Map Products, Inc., a geospatial mapping solution provider has acquired Toronto-based DMTI Spatial from Neopost Canada. DMTI is one of Canada’s leading location intelligence and data quality solution providers.
The acquisition of DMTI enables Digital Map Products to continue build a cloud-based platform in geospatial intelligence.
