Windstream has boosted its network management capabilities and reach in the northeast with the purchase of New York-based MASS Communications for $37.5 million.
MASS CEO Darren Mass is also joining Windstream leadership as part of the transition. He has been named president-resale for Windstream’s enterprise and wholesale business unit.
MASS is a privately-held telecom network management company that serves small-to-medium-sized businesses in a number of verticals, from education and government to healthcare, tech and finance. Its managed services include software-defined WAN, circuit monitoring, security and voice and data. Windstream described the company as providing “custom engineered voice, data and networking solutions.”
MASS Communications has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies for the past five years, and MASS noted in a statement last August that it had 42 employees and “consistent double-digit annual revenue growth over the last ten years.” Its customer wins have included the city of Yonkers, Oppenheimer & Co. and CityMD urgent care centers.
“This acquisition adds a well-run company with a customer-first mindset and an impressive track record of growing revenue to Windstream,” said Layne Levine, president of Windstream’s enterprise and wholesale business.
When Windstream announced its fourth quarter and full-year results last month, it reported that its enterprise service revenues for the fourth quarter were $760 million, essentially flat from the same period last year. For the full year, its enterprise revenues were $2.98 billion, down 5% from 2016. Meanwhile, its wholesale service revenues were down eight percent from 2016’s fourth quarter to $190 million and down 10% from the full-year 2016 to $778 million.
Tony Thomas, Windstream’s president and CEO, said that the company continues to see “growing demand for our SD-WAN service and strategic enterprise products.” In 2018, he added, “we are focused on advancing our industry-leading enterprise and wholesale service capabilities and launching faster, more cost-effective broadband deployment techniques. We will further simplify our business and transform customer-facing and internal tools and drive revenue improvements through enhanced sales and improved customer retention.”
