HACKENSACK WIRELESS FIRM GROWS 'FIVEFOLD OVERNIGHT'

Reprinted from Bergen Record, 1/10/2006

Hackensack-based Wave2Wave Communications, a provider of fixed wireless technology, has acquired Manhattan-based Intellispace, the company said Monday.

The deal means Wave2Wave "has grown fivefold overnight," said Wave2Wave President Steve Asman.

Wave2Wave, once a scrappy start-up with less than $10 million in annual sales, will now have revenues in the range of $20 million a year, according to Asman.

The company, founded in 1999, provides fixed wireless, a high-capacity, high-speed Internet connection beamed to an antenna atop a customer's building. Former President Bill Clinton's Harlem office was one of Wave2Wave's first customers.

With the acquisition of Intellispace, Wave2Wave counts customers in more than nine states. Intellispace provided a range of wire-based services to businesses via a fiber network.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The combined companies, both privately held, now serve almost 1,000 buildings, 4,500 businesses and approximately 250,000 end users.

The senior operations staff and senior sales staff of Intellispace will join Wave2Wave, said Asman, bringing the total employee count to about 112.

Intellispace has customers in the tri-state area as well as Chicago, including corporate customers such as Sony, Sun Microsystems and Thomson Financial.

Asman said the merger will help Wave2Wave provide customers with a range of services, including a high-capacity fixed wireless Internet connection, which many large customers want to install as a secondary, backup service.

The companies plan to merge their networks over the next month.