Zayo, one of Boulder’s largest public companies, closes $14.3B go-private deal

BOULDER — Zayo Group Holdings Inc. has consummated a $14.3 billion deal to sell itself to investment firms Digital Colony Partners and EQT AB, just more than 10 months after it announced the deal to become a private company.

The Boulder internet infrastructure company confirmed its removal from the New York Stock Exchange before markets opened Monday morning. Zayo’s final stock price was $34.99, and the company had a market capitalization of $8.31 billion.

Zayo is the third-largest publicly traded company in Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley by 2017 revenue behind Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL) and Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (Nasdaq: PPC), according to BizWest research.

In an interview with BizWest Monday morning, CEO Dan Caruso said operations at the company’s Boulder headquarters will remain business as usual despite the change in primary ownership.

There are no changes expected to Zayo’s executive team or the approximately 600 people in Boulder and the additional 600 to 700 employees elsewhere in Colorado as a direct result of the sale.

Digital Colony and EQT both expect to hold their investments in Zayo for the next five to seven years, which Caruso said will free the company to focus on medium to long-term infrastructure investments without the pressure from shareholders to maximize dividends at all costs.

“When you’re a public company, there are the distractions of being public that you have to deal with, which sometimes can be suffocating,” he said.

Caruso said Zayo is looking to reach organic revenue growth of 6 percent to 8 percent annually over the next several years, particularly from expected demand coming from the widespread adoption of the 5G wireless data protocol and automation in vehicles and factories.

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