Eight local businesses to watch in ‘08
Companies that look to make waves in the coming year
By Alicia Wallace http://dailycamera.com/staff/alicia-wallace/) (Contact) http://dailycamera.com/staff/alicia-wallace/contact/At the close of every year, the Camera’s business staff gathers the various yarns that unraveled during the preceding 12 months, and picks a handful of companies we think will make news in the next year. The following companies span a variety of industries and differ greatly in size, storylines and potential — and are eight companies to watch in 2008:
Zayo Group
Headquarters: Louisville
Description: Provider of bandwidth services to carriers, Web-centric companies, public institutions and enterprises
Founded: 2006
Employees: About 400 company wide; 25 locally
Two local telecommunications veterans began 2006 with aspirations of pulling together a syndicate of investors to fund a new company that would provide bandwidth services.
In the fall of 2006, former Level 3 and ICG executives Dan Caruso and John Scarano were able to land a quarter-billion-dollar backing from five institutional investors to start Communications Infrastructure Investments and fuel hopes of buying two, maybe three, fiber-based network providers in 2007.
The demand for bandwidth was booming with the explosion of videos over the Internet and on mobile devices, Caruso said.
This year, the company topped its expectations and made six acquisitions in a seven-month span; closed on an additional $85 million in debt financing; evolved into Zayo Group, a Louisville-based company with nearly 400 employees nationwide, three business units and a fiber-optic network with 17,000 route miles.
The founders did not expect to make that much progress in such a short period of time, Caruso said.
“We got lucky; we were fortunate that the larger telecom companies, who were the most likely buyers of these types of (regional fiber-optic providers), were distracted on more internal aspects of their business,” Caruso said in a recent interview. “We were able to take advantage of this window that opened up.”
Considering the moves made during the past year, when Caruso said 2008 is going to be “a very active year” for the company — noting a few more acquisitions that should take place — Zayo could be primed for even more explosive growth.
“In 2008, if we don’t do any more acquisitions, we’re looking at annual revenue of $170 million, and generating quite a bit of profit at the same time,” Caruso said. “We expect to grow past 2008.”
For the complete article, and the rest of the list, click Eight local businesses to watch in ‘08 (http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/dec/31/eight-to-watch-in-08/).
Leave a response (0 so far)
Subscribe via RSS
