PSINet Inc. Tuesday
reached an agreement with Metromedia Fiber Network, Inc. to purchase dark
fiber in California for additional bandwidth and also acquired three Hong
Kong Internet companies.
Today’s fiber announcement marks PSINet’s sixth acquisition of fiber optic
capacity. The dark fiber optic strands are to extend around the San
Francisco Bay region and south to Silicon Valley. Cities served will
include San Jose, Santa Clara and Hayward. The facility will also serve
numerous other cities along its route.
Under the California bandwidth agreement, portions of the acquired capacity
will be activated by the end of 1999 with full delivery expected in 2000.
The fiber is expected to last around 20 years. The capacity will
immediately be applied to anchor growth at existing PSINet service
locations and U.S. termination points for Asia/Pacific data transport
facilities.
Separately, PSINet acquired Hong Kong ISPs SpiderNet, HugeNet and AsiaNet.
PSINet said the additions will further its goal of becoming a major
commercial ISP in Hong Kong. All of the companies will be incorporated into
an international Internet product line and use PSINet’s fiber optic network
in the Asia/Pacific region.
The company said combined with its previous acquisitions in Japan, Korea,
and Hong Kong, it ranks as No. 1 or No. 2 in commercial market share in
each of these countries.
Financial terms of the purchases were not disclosed.
“Our primary growth objectives are advanced by acquisitions of dark fiber
capacity Internet and businesses that expand our presence in
currently-served top 20 global markets,” said William L. Schrader, chairman
and chief executive officer of PSINet Inc.
“These network assets and business acquisitions accelerate and reinforce
our aggressive growth strategy, build revenue and customer traffic on
our network, and contribute to earnings before interest, taxes,
depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).
PSINet continues on track to meet our objective of 100 percent revenue
growth for 1998 through a mix of organic growth and acquisitions,” Schrader
said.
