Shareholders of Dallas-based Allied Riser Communications Corp. have approved a merger of the company with a subsidiary of Cogent Communications Group Inc..
Allied Riser also said that a court in Wilmington, Del. has denied the motion for preliminary injunction to block the merger filed by certain holders of its 7.50% Convertible Subordinated Notes Due 2007.
Terms of the merger agreement call for Allied Riser shareholders to receive approximately .032 shares of common stock of Cogent for each Allied Riser share held, in a transaction structured to be a tax-free exchange. Additional financial details were not disclosed.
Cogent's common stock will be traded on the American Stock Exchange following consummation of the merger. On Thursday, Cogent was approved for listing on the American Stock Exchange, with one of the conditions for listing being the successful completion of Cogent's Allied Riser buy. Once listed on the AMEX -- an action Cogent said it expects to happen on or before Feb. 5 -- Cogent will trade under the symbol "COI."
Once the merger is a done deal, ARC will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cogent and its in-building networks will be added to Cogent's national backbone and facilities.
ARC is a provider of data communications services in commercial office buildings across the U.S. and in Canada. Primarily servicing small and mid-sized business, ARC has struggled in the recent telecom slump and has suffered through a large number of layoffs.
Washington, D.C.-based Cogent delivers ultra-high speed Internet access and transport services to businesses in the multi-tenant marketplace and to service providers located in major metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. Cogent's signature service offered to commercial end-users of 100 Mbps for $1,000, offers 100 times the observed bandwidth of a T-1 connection at two-thirds of the cost.
Cogent's network consists of a dedicated nationwide multiple OC-192 fiber backbone, multiple intra-city OC-48 fiber rings, and optically-interfaced high-speed routers. Cogent currently services 20 metropolitan markets.
Dave Schaeffer, chief executive officer of Cogent, said last August, "The acquisition of ARC will allow Cogent to integrate the nation's largest 80 Gigabit per second IP Internet backbone with the premier in-building network serving over 310 million square feet of large multi-tenant office buildings. Cogent will be uniquely capable of providing cost-effective Ethernet Internet access to small and medium size businesses in major metropolitan markets."
Jerry Dinsmore, president and chief executive officer of ARC, added, "ARC believes that the combined companies are financially stronger than each company alone and the combination of ARC with Cogent will provide synergies for both companies and is a logical extension of ARC's wholesale strategy."
Bob Woods is the managing editor of OpticallyNetworked. Roy Mark is the managing editor of dc.internet.com.
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