SAVVIS Communications was the winning bidder in a court-supervised sale of the network assets of Cable & Wireless USA and Cable & Wireless Internet Services (together CWA). Under the deal SAVVIS will acquire substantially all of the CWA assets for $155 million in cash and assume liabilities of approximately $12.4 million, subject to certain regulatory approvals. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix, Arizona approved the proposed sale on 23-Jan-2004.
SAVVIS was chosen as the winner among seven bidders at a two-day auction concluded on 22-Jan-2004, by CWA’s financial advisor, The Blackstone Group.
SAVVIS’ shareholders Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and Constellation Ventures, a Bear Stearns asset management fund, have committed to finance the purchase price and provide ongoing funding to support the acquired assets. In addition, SAVVIS has entered into a Letter of Intent with Du Pont Fabros Interests pursuant to which SAVVIS will sell its rights to acquire five of the CWA data centers to DuPont for $52 million, and to leaseback those data centers for 15 years.
SAVVIS said its purchase includes substantially all of CWA’s assets:
- a Tier 1 IP Network, serving more than 2,000 enterprise customers, with a footprint encompassing 27% of all Internet routes and providing a range of IP network services from public Internet to private lines
- a comprehensive Hosting Service business with more than 1,000 enterprise customers, 15 data centers, a Fortune 500 focus, and a complete range of managed hosting, consulting and infrastructure services.
SAVVIS said the deal would make it one of the world’s largest IP/hosting infrastructure providers. The acquired assets will add over 5,000 customers and the combined entity is currently projected to have annualized revenues of approximately $700 million by year end 2004. http://www.cwusa.comhttp://www.savvis.net
- On 08-Dec-2003, CWA announced that it had agreed to an asset sale with Gores Technology Group. As part of the deal, CWA filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Qualifying bidders then had an opportunity to submit higher and better offers for CWA’s evaluation through a court-supervised competitive bidding process.