By Bryan Corliss
Herald Writer
Oregon-based Integra Telecom has agreed to purchase the assets of Advanced TelCom Group Inc., which had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.
The deal assures that ATG’s Snohomish County customers will continue to have service, an Integra official said. But it’s too soon to tell what it will mean for the $10.7 million switching center the California-based company built in Everett last year to provide small- and mid-sized businesses with advanced telephone and Internet connections.
"Whatever’s best for the customers, we’ll do," said John Nee, Integra’s vice president for marketing.
ATG has its office on Colby Avenue in Everett.
Nee would not disclose the terms of the deal, which still must be approved by a federal bankruptcy court judge in California. But the Associated Press reported, based on court filings, that Integra had entered a bid of $13.8 million to purchase ATG’s operations in Washington, Oregon and Santa Rosa, Calif. The deal includes ATG’s equipment, 22,000 customers and 114,000 access lines.
The deal will almost double Integra’s reach. The company ended 2001 with more than 120,000 lines.
Those ATG assets were expected to bring in revenue of $29 million this year, AP reported. However, the company had piled up $203 million in debt during its three-year history.
Integra plans a "substantial infusion of new capital" in the combined company, officials said in a press release.
The deal complements Integra’s existing network in Washington, Nee said. The company has a center in Kent, which it opened in 2000, and it provides telephone and Internet services to businesses from Tacoma to Bothell. Adding ATG’s customers to the mix will extend Integra’s reach north to Bellingham, he said.
Integra was formed in 1985, and changes in federal telecommunications law led to its expansion, starting in 1997. The company now operates in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Minnesota.
You can call Herald Writer Bryan Corliss at 425-339-3454
or send e-mail to corliss@heraldnet.com.
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