Distributel’s Primus acquisition ‘just fits,’ CEO says

Distributel Communications Ltd. has acquired telecom service provider Primus from Fusion Connect Inc. in what Distributel CEO Matt Stein said Tuesday was a “major acquisition” for the company. “It’s hundreds more employees, so many more customers… there’s more geography that we cover together and more products,” Stein said in a phone interview, though he declined to offer specifics or numbers about how much the company will grow as a result. Primus has been owned by a U.S. company since 2016, and Distributel’s acquisition brings it back to Canadian ownership, Distributel said in a press release. Stein declined to say how much the company paid for Primus. Combined, the footprints of the two companies cover the whole country. In the residential sector, Distributel had been “largely been focused in Ontario and Quebec, but we were traditionally very strong on the enterprise voice side in Alberta and B.C.,” Stein said. “Primus, on the other hand, had found a way to grow quite rapidly out in Alberta and B.C., which we’re now looking forward to extending on the residential side, and on the enterprise side had done very very well in Ontario and Quebec.” In Manitoba, for instance, Distributel wasn’t active but Primus was, Stein said. The company plans to continue offering service under the Primus brand in Manitoba. He added that Primus has name recognition in Canada and that over the years, more than a million Canadians have bought service from Primus at some point. “In terms of serving area, Primus has cable internet regions that Distributel didn’t, and vice versa. So there’s a lot that has come together in so many really great ways. We’re just very excited about it,” Stein said. “It just fits together almost like it was designed to,” Stein said. Stein declined to specify how many customers Distributel is gaining with the acquisition. In 2016, when it was sold to Birch, Primus had 250,000 business and residential customers in Canada, and the company has grown since then. Distributel’s press release referred to Primus as “one of Canada's largest independent telecom providers.” The announcement comes three years after Stein said the company was embarking on an expansion plan. “We’ve been focused on both organic and inorganic means of growth, and continue to focus on service-based competition. This is a huge investment for us, and it’s a huge investment towards our goals of being able to bring our services to more Canadians,” Stein said Tuesday. Primus has an ongoing Part 1 complaint against BCE Inc., filed in December, over a price increase on the rates for unbundled local loops (ULLs) that Primus said in the complaint is "unreasonable, unjustified, and punitive in nature.” — Reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Distributel’s Primus acquisition ‘just fits,’ CEO says

News | January 19, 2021

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Distributel’s Primus acquisition ‘just fits,’ CEO says

News | January 19, 2021

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