UC provider Alteva bought by Warwick Valley Telephone for $17 million

Warwick Valley Telephone Co. (Nasdaq: WWVY), a 100-year-old company that has transitioned from an operator-assisted party-line provider in rural New York State to a CLEC offering broadband and data services, as well as a telephony provider in New York and New Jersey, is buying cloud-based unified communications provider Alteva in a cash and stock deal worth about $17 million.

Both boards have approved the deal, which should close in the third quarter.

WTV will integrate its CLEC business, USA Datanet, into Alteva, the largest enterprise hosted VoIP provider in the U.S., once the sale closes. The company said it expects the combined UC and hosted applications businesses of the two to bump WVT's consolidated revenues by some 30 percent on an annual basis.

"This is an extraordinary acquisition that will significantly contribute to our strength and momentum in the marketplace, favorably impact our highly skilled workforce and the services delivered to our customers and, most importantly, support our mission to deliver value to our shareholders," said Duane W. Albro, president and CEO of Warwick Valley Telephone Company. "We believe we have found a strong partner in Alteva, a fast growing UC service provider which has a complementary business, a well regarded brand and shared values that will both benefit from and contribute to WVT's future success."

Philadelphia-based Alteva specializes in cloud-based UC solutions including VoIP phone systems and service, hosted Microsoft Communication Services, fixed mobile convergence and advanced voice applications for the desktop.

For more:
- see this release
- see the FierceTelecom article

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