CLECs FDN, NuVox merge

FDN Communications is being folded into NuVox Communications, in the latest of a series of competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) mergers in the Southeast and Midwest in recent years.

With the addition of FDN (formerly Florida Digital Networks), NuVox Communications will have more than 90,000 customers, 1 million access lines and more than $500 million in annual revenue, according to the two companies.

NuVox’s current chief executive officer, Jim Akerhielm, will remain CEO, while FDN’s CEO Mike Gallagher will become president of strategic markets. The company will remain headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina.

Financial terms of the deal, which the parties expect to close by July 2007, were undisclosed.

The deal follows a series of mergers, and attempted mergers, on both sides. In 2005, FDN acquired Florida-based CLEC Supra Telecom. In 2004, NuVox merged with another CLEC, NewSouth Communications, doubling its market share and ending up with more than 40,000 business customers, more than 600,000 access lines and more than $300 million in annual sales.

Later in 2004, FDN announced it was merging with two other Southeastern CLECs: ITC^DeltaCom and Network Telephone. But that merger was cancelled three months later. In fact, it was the second time FDN had backed out of a proposed three-way merger: It also planned to join Cavalier Telephone and Conversent Communications in 2000 but never did.