MONTREAL – Videotron is acquiring Montreal-based fibre-optic connectivity services provider Fibrenoire for $125 million, the company announced Thursday.
Fibrenoire deploys and operates its own 4,500 km fibre-optic network in the Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal and Québec City metropolitan areas, and ranked as Québec's fastest-growing company on the PROFIT 500 list in 2014.
The transaction will allow Videotron Business Solutions and Fibrenoire to join forces to meet the growing demand from business customers for fibre-optic connectivity, reads the announcement.
Fibrenoire becomes an independent subsidiary of Videotron, and its head office and 60 employees will remain in Montréal's Park Extension neighbourhood. The company's three founding owners, president Benjamin Desmarais, sales and engineering VP Rémi Fournier, and CTO Jean-François Lévesque, will remain in their current positions.
Combined with last year’s purchase of 4Degrees Colocation, Videotron president and CEO Manon Brouillette said the move positions the company to meet growing business needs for cloud computing and connectivity.
"We are very pleased to welcome Fibrenoire's talented team to our ranks," said Brouillette, in the announcement. "This transaction will strengthen Videotron's leadership in the business telecom market. Combining our expertise and our distinct but complementary facilities will equip us to continue our growth in the Québec business market."
"Our connection with Videotron will give us access to financial resources, technological depth and a fibre-optic network of more than 30,000 km available across Québec", added Desmarais. "Those assets will enable us to better serve business customers. The deal is a win-win that combines our strengths and gives us the means to achieve our ambitions."
