Pacific LightNet finds buyer
STORY SUMMARY »
Pacific LightNet Inc., a local telecommunications firm that owns a fiber-optic system linking the six major Hawaiian islands, is being sold to a group of Hawaii and mainland investors.
The company's current owners, NextNet Investments LLC, a Washougal, Wash.-based real estate and telecommunications investment firm, and Japanese trading company Tomen Corp., agreed last month to sell Pacific LightNet to a unit of SK Capital Holdings, a California private investment firm, according to a recent filing with the Federal Communications Commission.
The company's management team, which includes Pat Bustamante as president, Tim Sansom as chief financial officer and Kevin Wright as chief operating officer, will remain intact in the deal, along with its 95 employees on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island.
The deal closes a nearly 19-month search for an investor, Bustamante said.
"It's time for a change for the company, and these investors are the best fit for what we are trying to do," he said. "This is going to be an investment that will last for a while."
FULL STORY »
Hawaii's telecommunications industry is about to get another shakeup.
Pacific LightNet Inc., a Honolulu-based telecommunications firm, is being sold to a group of Hawaii and mainland investors, company President and CEO Pat Bustamante said yesterday.
The company requested a transfer of all its outstanding shares to SK Telcom Holdings LP, a subsidiary of private mainland investment firm SK Capital Holdings, according to an application with the state Public Utilities Commission on Feb. 15. The company's primary owners are Robert, Matthew, Peter and John Seidler, named in a Federal Communications Commission filing made last month.
No changes are expected in day-to-day operations, including the management team or the company's 95 employees in the company's three locations on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island, Bustamante said. Rates, contract terms and service will also remain the same.
The brothers, who work from California, are buying the company along with an undisclosed number of other investors, said Bustamante, who will remain a key investor in the privately held company. The Seidlers, who Bustamante described as friends, have previously invested in Hawaii, he said, but this is their first telecommunications venture.
"They are very private group of individuals," he said. "They look for good, solid companies that are at a stage of development. By them coming in and supporting it along with other investors, they can help leverage it and take it to the next level."
The deal closes a nearly 19-month search for an investor, Bustamante said.
Pacific LightNet, which was founded in 2001 and owns a fiber-optic system linking the six major Hawaiian islands, provides information technology services to local businesses.
"There's so much buildup on the Pac-Asian rim," Bustamante said. "Part of it is providing additional capabilities to businesses that want to locate in Hawaii."
Pacific LightNet requested that the PUC issue an expedited order approving the transfer of all of its outstanding shares to SK Telecom. Financial terms were not disclosed.
On Feb. 4, owners NextNet Investments LLC, a Washougal, Wash.-based real estate and telecommunications investment firm, and Japanese trading company Tomen Corp., controlled by Japan-based Toyota Tsusho Corp., agreed to sell all issued and outstanding stock of Pacific LightNet to SK Telecom, according to the FCC filing.
"You go through changes and cycles, and it's time for a change for the company," he said. "This is going to be an investment that will last for a while."
The sale is expected to close in the next two to three months, after the regulatory review process is complete, Bustamante said.
"The transfer of control is not expected to have any effect on PLNI's customers, and, as a result, the transfer is expected to be transparent to businesses and consumers that rely on PLNI's services," the company said in its FCC filing.
Bustamante said he wants the company, which currently has between 6,000 and 7,000 subscribers, to expand on its softswitch technology and next-generation network and continue to focus on small to medium-sized businesses. Pacific LightNet provides local dial tone, high-speed Internet, long distance, collocation and enhanced data services, according to its Web site.
The transfer of ownership to an entirely U.S.-based ownership will enable the company to win government contracts that were previously closed because of foreign ownership issues, the PUC filing said. It will also improve the company's ability to compete against local telephone and Internet services provider Hawaiian Telcom Communications Inc., the filing said.
In 2005, Washington, D.C.-based investment firm Carlyle Group acquired Verizon Communication Inc.'s Hawaii assets for $1.6 billion, changing the company name from Verizon Hawaii to Hawaiian Telcom.
