NuVox being bought out by Windstream

NuVox, a Greenville, S.C.-based telephone and Internet service provider to businesses that operates in Wichita, will be acquired by a much larger telecom.

Little Rock-based Windstream Corp. said Tuesday that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire NuVox for $183 million in stock and $280 million in cash.

Windstream officials said in a news release that the deal gives them a bigger presence in the Southeast and Midwest.

It also gives Windstream a greater share in the lucrative business voice and data services market.

"This transaction significantly advances our strategy to grow broadband and business revenues, which is important given the growth prospects in these areas," said Jeff Gardner, Windstream's president and CEO.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2010, pending approval by federal and state regulators.

Once the transaction is complete, Windstream officials said, broadband and business revenue will account for more than half of its total revenue. The deal also will give it the ability to focus more on small and midsize businesses.

Windstream is a spinoff of Alltel's telephone business and a merger with Valor Telecom. The publicly traded company that serves business and residential customers has more than $3 billion in annual revenue and operates in 16 states.

Its offerings include telephone, high-speed Internet and digital television.

Windstream spokesman David Avery said his company most likely will not expand its services in Wichita to include residential service and digital television.

"We would continue to run those (NuVox) properties serving business customers," Avery said.

NuVox is a privately held company that has done business in Wichita for more than a decade.

It has 90,000 business customers in 16 states and annual revenue of more than $500 million.

In Wichita, NuVox employs a sales and technical staff of eight from an office in Northrock Business Park.

Lori Horsch, NuVox's field sales manager for Wichita, said the acquisition "can only be good news for Wichita and for NuVox."

Windstream's different set of products and services combined with NuVox's services and equipment in Wichita — including a Cisco telephone switch —"will just bring more to the table here for our customers," Horsch said.

This story was originally published November 4, 2009 at 12:00 AM with the headline "NuVox being bought out by Windstream."