Zayo Group Acquires Clearview International for Nearly $19M

By Robert Demeter

Clearview Dallas Data Center Facility

Dallas–In an $18.9 million deal, Zayo Group Holdings Inc. has acquired Clearview International LLC, a Texas-based colocation and cloud infrastructure company. Clearview operates two data centers in Dallas and Waco, Texas, totaling approximately 30,000 square feet of colocation space.

Zayo continues to experience strong demand resulting from the interplay between data center and fiber needs across its markets and particularly in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. This hybrid demand has been boosted by the kick-off of a 2,000+ route miles Dallas area fiber-to-the-tower (FTT) deployment, announced in May 2015. A recent example is a global SaaS provider securing colocation in Zayo’s Dallas Empire Central facility plus four diverse 10G wavelengths tethering to a Zayo presence in the primary Dallas carrier hotel.

“Enterprise, content, and technology customers increasingly require solutions that involve network connectivity, colocation and cloud infrastructure. Zayo’s acquisition of Clearview ensures we continue to be well-positioned to capitalize on these opportunities and we expect to exceed a 30 percent internal rate of return on this investment,” stated Greg Friedman, executive vice president of Colocation and Cloud Infrastructure, Zayo Group.

Zayo now owns and operates seven data centers in Texas and a total of 57 facilities in North America and Europe. Zayo’s dense fiber backbone in Dallas spans more than 3,500 miles, inclusive of the in-process FTT deployment. In addition, Zayo’s Phoenix-Dallas long-haul fiber build will provide additional connectivity between Dallas and Waco. This network enables Zayo to interconnect the new Clearview data centers to Zayo’s key points-of-presence (PoPs) in its other Texas data centers, including 1950 North Stemmons Freeway in Dallas and 1301 Fanning in Houston.

“Both Clearview’s customers and delivery team will benefit from integrating into Zayo’s global communications infrastructure,” added TJ Karklins, CEO of Clearview. “In turn, the Texas market will also benefit from a strong, high-scale provider of integrated cloud, data center and network solutions.”

The acquisition was funded with cash on hand and will contribute over $2 million in incremental annualized adjusted EBITDA, before the benefit of any realized cost synergies.

Zayo Group Holdings Inc. provides communications infrastructure services, including fiber and bandwidth connectivity, colocation and cloud services to the world’s leading businesses. Customers include wireless and wireline carriers, media and content companies and finance, healthcare and other large enterprises. Zayo’s 110,000-mile network in North America and Europe includes extensive metro connectivity to thousands of buildings and data centers. In addition to high-capacity dark fiber, wavelength, Ethernet and other connectivity solutions, Zayo offers colocation and cloud services in its carrier-neutral data centers. Zayo provides clients with flexible, customized solutions and self-service through Tranzact, an innovative online platform for managing and purchasing bandwidth and services.

Photo courtesy of Clearview International.