By Catherine Sbeglia
Cox Communications acquired the commercial services segment of Segra, a privately held fiber infrastructure provider based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The deal represents one of the largest in Cox Communications history and supports the company’s focus on strategic infrastructure investments and its continued expansion into the business services market.
Segra provides fiber-based services to commercial enterprise and carrier customers in nine states in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast with fiber optic infrastructure and voice and data technology solutions. The enterprise and carrier organization will continue to be led by the current Segra management team and the company will retain the Segra brand and operate as a stand-alone business within the Cox family of companies.
“Cox has invested more than US$15 billion in its communities through infrastructure upgrades in the last decade and acquiring Segra’s commercial services business underscores our commitment to continue to make big bets in the business services space,” said Cox Communications’ incoming president, Mark Greatrex. “An expanded geographical presence, greater network capacity and more services will be an immediate benefit for customers of both companies and will better enable us to meet the significant demand for our solutions.”
In the last few years, Cox’s investments have included the acquisitions of, or strategic investments in, a range of network infrastructure companies. Those have included the CLEC EasyTel, data center company EdgeConneX, and InSite Wireless (which was acquired by American Tower last year), as well as an investment in edge and cloud company StackPath in 2020, the fiber company Unite Private Networks and fiber/cloud/colocation company ViaWest in 2013.
“The Segra acquisition supports that ongoing focus,” Cox said in a release.
For Segra, the acquisition by Cox provides the company the opportunity to “meet the growing demand for our products and services,” said CEO Timothy Biltz.
“The Segra and Cox teams have been working diligently together to plan for a successful day one and beyond,” he added.
