Intent to buy

Buy the excess broadband equipment companies and save the telecom realm from potential ruin. That’s the motivating factor of Jarvis Entertainment Group’s Chairman and CEO John D. Jarvis Jr. for sending a letter of intent to acquire Enron Broadband Services yesterday--a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron Corp.

“Fire-selling equipment to the market is not the answer,” Jarvis said. “If Enron’s equipment were to be fire-sold in the market, it would take with it five major companies and possibly topple the Internet. There would be huge ramifications… Our backbones are built on companies such as Cisco--if those business equipment companies are hurting, it’s going to hurt the whole system.”

In addition, the cost is right. “It’s cheap,” Jarvis said. “[Enron] paid all the initial costs. It’s the American dream. Kind of like buying a used car--they take the depreciation and I buy the car I want.”

The deal would include essentially all of Enron EBS’ assets--the IP network, the fiber and optical transport network, long haul dark fiber, metro dark fiber, real estate and equipment. Both companies are located in Houston.

“My goal is to take the network revitalize it into something that’s a profitable asset and go forward with it,” Jarvis said.

The acquisition of EBS’s assets also would provide the medium-sized Internet company, which provides co-location and has its own fiber on site already, with one of the best IP long-haul fiber connections around, Jarvis said.

But Jarvis Entertainment Group is not stopping there. The company also is looking to acquire certain Global Crossing assets. “Why stop here? Let’s put a lot of people back to work, and let’s make these networks somewhat decent, and let’s try to make some money,” he said.

Jarvis Entertainment Group plans on stepping in and playing a part once Global Crossing understands what it needs to do. “Now’s a good time to buy,” Jarvis said. “This is a buyer’s market. I feel good about it, and our backers feel good about it.”

Jarvis hopes to have the EBS deal finalized by tomorrow or Friday but would not disclose monetary figures relating to the company’s bid for EBS, nor would he disclose the company’s financial backers. If EBS accepts Jarvis Entertainment Group’s bid, Jarvis said the company would continue with EBS’ core initiative but would not carry on with its bandwidth training. “We’re going to come full circle,” Jarvis said. “Provide business solutions, individual solutions and in addition to that we’re going to start on other initiatives--what we call the 'people helping people' initiative.”