Windstream Wraps Hosted Solutions Deal for $310M

Shares of Windstream Corp. closed 20 cents higher as the rural service provider said it has closed its acquisition of Hosted Solutions LLC.

Windstream, which is branching beyond its traditional rural, legacy focus to include enterprises and small businesses, bought Hosted Solutions from ABRY Partners for $310 million. Windstream financed the deal announced last month with cash and credit.

The addition of Hosted Solutions will help Windstream expand its broadband and business services units. Hosted Solutions specializes in Web hosting for SMBs. The strategy should fit well with the direction of NuVox, the CLEC Windstream bought last year to jump into the lucrative enterprise and SMB markets.

Hosted Solutions, based in Raleigh, N.C., is a regional data center and managed services hosting provider. It operates five SAS 70 Type II certified data centers in three major markets, serving more than 600 customers. Windstream now runs 12 data centers in eight states.

 Windstream stock closed at $13.24 per share on Wednesday.