This came from a bearonbusiness reader who added color to yesterday’s XO Texas hold’me post. I thought it would be interesting to share. (I did not look into the accuracy.)
Looking to get into the Internet business, XO bought Concentric for about $1 billion. In return, XO got a leased OC-3 Internet backbone, a number of POPs located in the back of Payless Shoe stores and an eroding base of medium to small sized hosting customers. The network was replaced via Level 3. Ultimately they retained some of the smart folks who have been leveraging patented hosting technologies. Largest customer is Microsoft’s B-central. At the end of the day they paid too much and it didn’t add to the brand nor did it deliver meaningful revenue. It did make a lot of the Concentric execs very rich though.
Now this was a classic telecom bubble story.
To the reader who sent this–thanks for the email.
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With all due respect, even when utilizing a disclaimer statement of not having verified the accuracy of another blog reader’s submission, while the references to a network built on an eroding customer base who’s traffic flows through the backs of numerous Payless shoe stores may be true (every service provider has their grease filled kitchen closet, under stairs POP-don’t they, Sir?); the claims are also extremely biased considering some of the locations Zayo has inherited with their acquisitions. Play fair, Mr. Caruso… Unlike our last game of billiards, we can’t let you win them all.