Integra Telecom

History

The company was founded in 1996 through the acquisition of OGI Telecomm, a shared tenant provider formed in 1984 to provide voice and data services to the Oregon Graduate Institute (then based in unincorporated Washington County) and businesses in the AmberGlen Business Park, a nearby office park. The company became Integra Telecom in 1998.

By the year 2000 Integra had grown to annual revenues of $42 million, and grown to around $150 million in 2005. Integra Telecom doubled in size through the acquisition of Electric Lightwave (ELI) from Citizens Communications (later renamed Frontier Communications) in 2006, and in 2007 acquired Eschelon Telecom, which again doubled the size of the company. ELI was purchased for $243 million in cash as well as an assumption of $4 million in debt in a deal that closed on August 1, 2006. The Eschelon purchase was for $566 million in cash and $144 million in assumed debt.

In 2007, Integra had 1,100 employees and annual revenues of $340 million before their purchase of Eschelon. That year they moved part of their operations into the 20-story Lloyd Center Tower in Portland's Lloyd District on the city's eastside. This is near their headquarters at the 1201 Lloyd Building. By 2009 the company had grown to annual revenues of more than $680 million and employed more than 550 people at their headquarters and 2,300 people across the company. In 2009, the company brought in new investors to reduce its debt load by approximately $600 million. Integra accumulated much of the debt due to its earlier acquisitions, and faced the possibility of bankruptcy due to breaching covenants in its loan agreements.

In 2011, Kevin O'Hara became the third chief executive officer of the company that year when he was named to replace Tom Casey in December. Since then, Integra has marked a return to financial stability along with substantial growth for the company’s network assets Ethernet-based product portfolio and service offerings. By the end of 2012, Integra had expanded its enterprise and wholesale customer base, contributing to an increasingly diversified customer and revenue mix. Integra also renamed its Electric Lightwave subsidiary to Integra Wholesale to reflect its longstanding integration into Integra's business. The company also announced the completed acquisition of equity interests previously held by Goldman, Sachs & Co., Integra’s largest shareholder, by investment funds affiliated with Searchlight Capital Partners, L.P. (collectively, “Searchlight”).

In 2013, Integra closed a new $845 million senior secured credit facilities, including a $60 million revolving credit facility (undrawn at closing), a $585 million first lien term loan due 2019 and a $200 million second lien term loan due 2020. The net proceeds from the new credit facilities were used to refinance Integra’s previously outstanding term loan and bonds, and for general corporate purposes. To better align with its expanded market focus, Integra re-branded in February 2013 and introduced a new company logo and tagline, “Technology You Trust. People You Know.” In 2014, the company moved its headquarters from Portland to neighboring Vancouver, Washington.

Products and services

Integra owns and operates a fiber optic network consisting of a 5,000-mile long-haul fiber-optic network, 3,000 miles of metropolitan fiber and a nationwide IP/MPLS network. Additionally, the company offers data networking and high-speed Internet, managed and cloud services, voice communications, colocation and equipment and business bundles to small-to-medium businesses as well as large enterprises in 35 metropolitan markets including cities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Washington.