Telecommunications Acquisitions in Washington

Digicomm International has acquired EasyStreet Systems, a U.S.-based maker of smart composite poles for small cells, IoT, lighting, EV charging and other intelligent infrastructure. The acquisition expands Digicomm’s product offering into smart-city and telecom infrastructure manufacturing, enabling faster deployment of broadband, 5G and connected community solutions.

BCE Inc. (Bell Canada) has completed the acquisition of Ziply Fiber (Northwest Fiber Holdco, LLC) for C$5.0 billion in cash plus the assumption of approximately C$2.6 billion of net debt. The deal expands Bell's fibre footprint into the U.S. (adding ~1.3–1.4 million locations), leaves Ziply operating as a separate unit headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, and is paired with a strategic partnership with PSP Investments to accelerate U.S. fibre deployment.

Palisade Infrastructure has acquired 100% of the equity interests in Mashell, Inc., the parent company of Rainier Connect, and will operate and rebrand the business as Lightcurve. Palisade plans significant investments to upgrade fiber-optic infrastructure and expand broadband service across multiple Washington counties as part of a strategy to build a regional digital connectivity platform.

Astound Broadband powered by Wave has acquired FastMesh Internet, a Seattle- and Portland-based provider of managed wireless residential Wi‑Fi services for apartment buildings and housing communities. The deal brings FastMesh's MDU-focused wireless access capability and customers into Astound's footprint and transitions FastMesh employees into Astound roles to accelerate deployment of managed Wi‑Fi across Astound markets.

BCM One acquired the assets of Flowroute from Intrado Corporation to expand its NextGen Communications and managed services portfolio. The acquisition adds Flowroute's cloud-based SIP trunking, CPaaS APIs and SMS capabilities and strengthens BCM One's West Coast presence; terms were not disclosed.

Ookla has acquired RootMetrics to combine Ookla's Speedtest crowdsourced measurement data with RootMetrics' controlled drive- and walk-test network measurement capabilities. The combined offering will provide mobile operators, network infrastructure providers and governments with integrated network performance analytics, leveraging Ookla's Wind platform alongside RootMetrics' testing and RootScore reporting.

Ethos Capital has completed an investment to acquire a controlling interest in Donuts Inc. from Abry Partners. The deal brings Ethos (with strategic partners The Baupost Group and Neuberger Berman) in control of the domain registry operator, which is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and manages roughly 25 million domains with ~300 employees.

Siyata Mobile Inc. agreed to acquire all issued and outstanding shares of ClearRF, LLC for US$700,000 in cash and shares. The acquisition gives Siyata ClearRF's patented M2M/IoT cellular amplifier technology, U.S. manufacturing access via Servatron, and accelerates entry into government, military and in-vehicle modem markets.

Infobip has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire OpenMarket from Amdocs for approximately $300 million. The deal combines OpenMarket's U.S. mobile messaging scale with Infobip's global footprint, creating a cloud communications player with a combined revenue run-rate above $1 billion and the ability to process more than 14 billion customer interactions per month.

Westelcom, a New York-based provider of advanced communications services, has acquired Teo Communications Services, a Mukilteo, Washington–based unified communications and contact center solutions provider. The deal adds Teo’s proprietary unified communications technology, national sales and support capabilities, and expands Westelcom’s product portfolio and geographic reach to a national footprint.

A Searchlight Capital Partners-led investor group, together with WaveDivision Capital (WDC), PSP Investments, BCI and CPP Investments, completed the $1.352 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications' Northwest operations and assets and committed an additional $500 million for network and service improvements to form Ziply Fiber. The new company, headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, will focus on upgrading the region to predominantly all-fiber service for roughly 500,000 residential and business subscribers across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

Nokia Networks has signed an agreement to acquire Eden Rock Communications, the maker of the Eden-NET multivendor Self-Organizing Network (SON) solution, with the transaction expected to close in Q3 2015. The acquisition strengthens Nokia Networks' SON and network optimization capabilities and Eden Rock will spin off a separate company for its spectrum sharing technologies.