Two metro Atlanta companies that connect businesses with technology and communications services say they plan to combine. Birch Communications announced it has agreed to buy Cbeyond for about $323 million in cash.
Birch said the acquisition will result in a communications, cloud and managed services provider with $700 million in annual revenue and 200,000 business customers.
“This transaction will create a nationwide communications and technology services powerhouse,” Birch chief executive Vincent Oddo said in a press release statement Monday morning.
Birch provides communications, cloud and managed services to businesses throughout the nation and in Canada. Cbeyond, a public company, provides IT and communications services aimed at small and mid-size companies.
The sale price would result in Cbeyond shareholders receiving between $9.97 and $10 a share. That’s well above where Cbeyond stock has been trading recently. It closed at $7.08 on Friday. But it is less than what Cbeyond had traded at in years past, particularly prior to mid 2011, when it regularly was above $12 a share. It briefly shot above $40 a share in late 2007. The companies did not immediately return calls for comment Monday morning.
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