What Have We Learned?
So much has happened in telecom over the last decade, both good and bad. With BearonBusiness.com, I strive to dissect what’s happened before as well as what’s going on in the here and now. I try to capture stories from the boom, the bust, and, now, the resurgence. We are fortunate to work in a great industry (communications) at a great time (the dawn of the Internet)–let’s reminisce, reflect, and celebrate.
If you enjoy the blog and want to “say thanks”…
Are you enjoying the blog? If so, you might be able to do me a favor. I collect annual reports from the telecom/Internet boom era. If you have some laying around–Worldcom, PSInet, Enron, early Google or Amazon, etc., I’d be extremely appreciative if you sent them my way. Also, if you have some old Berkshire Hathaway annual reports, please send them my way as well.
Tell the Bear Your Story
There are so many stories to be told about the telecom boom and subsequent bust. The tales I share are a mere glimpse of what was happening during that time. I’d like to invite you to add your anecdotes, thoughts and insights. Please email them to me and I will try to work them into the blog.
History of Telecom from the Bear’s perspective
About the Bear
Dan Caruso — dan.caruso@bearequity.com
Dan is currently President and CEO of the Zayo Group (www.zayo.com) and chairman of Envysion (www.envysion.com). As part of his Zayo Group responsibilities, Dan also oversees Onvoy Voice Services (www.onvoy.com). He is a board member of GTS Central Europe (www.gtsce.com) and, until recently, sat on the board of New Global Telecom (www.ngt.com). NGT was sold to Comcast in February 2010.
Between 2004 and 2006, Dan was President and CEO of ICG Communications. In 2004, he led a buyout of ICG and took it private. ICG, at the time, had about $100M of debt and was burning their remaining $30M of cash at a rate of $8M a month. Columbia Capital and M/C Venture Partners, who backed the buyout, invested a total of $8.7M. In 2006, ICG was sold to Level 3 for $170M, resulting in a total distribution to the buyout group and management of over $225M and a total return on investment of 25x.
Dan was one of the founding executives of Level(3) Communications; from inception in 1997 through ~2000, Dan was responsible for Level 3’s engineering, construction, and operations organizations; between 2001 and 2003, most of Level 3’s lines of business and marketing functions were his responsibility. Prior to Level 3, Dan was a member of the MFS Communications senior management team. He began his career at Illinois Bell/Ameritech.
Dan has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois. He is a board member in Colorado Uplift, a charity that helps Denver’s inner city youth stay focused on school and personal development.
