“The Global Valley Networks markets are a great fit with our California properties. We look forward to integrating these markets into our West region.”
— Maggie Wilderotter
Chairman and CEO of Citizens Communications
A Connecticut-based firm got the OK last week to buy local telecommunications company Global Valley Networks, and the company should be in new hands starting Thursday.
Citizens Communications got permission from the state Public Utilities Commission Oct. 18 to buy Global Valley Networks’ stock from New Jersey-based Country Road Communications for $62 million.
Along with the change in ownership will come a change in name, and all telecommunications services eventually will be offered under Citizens’ brand name, Frontier.
“The Global Valley Networks markets are a great fit with our California properties. We look forward to integrating these markets into our West region,” said Maggie Wilderotter, CEO of Citizens Communications.
Quick approval process
Wilderotter said she was happy with the quick approval process conducted by the utilities commission and the Federal Communications Commission.
Frontier serves about 2.5 million access lines and 464,000 high-speed Internet subscribers in 23 states, and it has more than 6,000 employees. It focuses on acquiring companies in rural and suburban areas.
Country Road officials have said changes in the economy compelled them to change the company’s acquisition strategy, and it could not acquire additional properties in the western United States to go along with Global Valley Networks. Officials told the Public Utilities Commission that selling Global Valley Networks would allow it to focus on its rural telephone properties on the East Coast. In addition, the company financed its purchase of Global Valley in 2001 in part through debt it incurred at the holding company level. The sale will help Country Road reduce its debt, according to the Public Utilities Commission’s Web site.
The Public Utilities Commission noted that the sale to Citizens Communications only entailed a change of ownership in stock. There would be no new construction or significant changes to the environment. In addition, customers will not face a rate increase associated with the deal, according to the commission’s Web site.
Expanding service areas
Frontier already serves a wide range of areas in California, including Elk Grove near Sacramento, Burney and Alturas in northeastern California, Palo Cedro near Redding and Needles on the Arizona border.
Now, it will add Global Valley Networks’ service areas: Patterson, Westley, Grayson, San Antonio Valley, Livingston, Cressey and Capay Valley.
Patterson-area residents could receive new choices of products sometime in early 2008. Frontier offers satellite-television services in addition to other telecommunications products.
Access to services
Company spokeswoman Stephanie Beasly said Fronteir offers a “Triple-Play” package, with phone, high-speed Internet and video services all on the same bill.
“People who decide to live in rural areas should have the same technology found in metro areas,” Beasly said.
She said the company plans to begin a consumer outreach campaign Nov. 7.
Citizens Communications announced the sale in early July after having talked with Country Road Communications about the possible sale for about a year.
Bruce Holdridge, Global Valley’s vice president of operations, will be the new manager for Frontier’s Patterson and Livingston areas. Global Valley Networks President Carla Reichelderfer will no longer continue with the company.
Reichelderfer said she expected Country Road to sell the company within three to five years when she started working for Evans Telephone Co. in 2003 and that her position would end when the company sold. She plans to take a couple of months off and then look for a new position elsewhere.
“I only see this as a positive for customers,” she said of the sale.
She cited growth as one of Global Valley Networks’ greatest accomplishments in the past few years, noting it was one of the first rural telecommunications firms to connect optical fibers directly to new homes and businesses.
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Ms. Reichelderfer went to a rural telephone company where I used to work. I worked there as a loyal employee for several years, serving the customers, as well as the community. For some unknown reason because "it's a secret". I no longer have a job. The people who got to stay had been in the dept a lot less time than myself. I knew my job frontwards and backwards and did it very well. I never put my coworkers before the customers, if they made a mistake then I corrected it for the benefit of the customer. So, in my opinion Ms. Reichelderfer made a grievous mistake for the new company that she went to work for.