Posted: 03/2000
Broadwing Secures $2.1 Billion in Private Equity;
Hires 'E' CFO
By Ken Branson
Hoping to become considerably more than the sum of its parts, Broadwing Inc. (www.broadwing.com) continues its metamorphosis.
Broadwing, which grew out of the merger late last year of the former Cincinnati Bell Telephone Co. and the former IXC Communications Inc., has completed syndication of a complex, $2.1 billion credit facility with a consortium of 24 banks. The leading banks are PNC Bank Corp. (www.pncbank.com), Bank of New York Co. Inc. (www.bankofny.com) and Credit Suisse First Boston (www.csfb.com).
Broadwing originally had a $1.8 billion facility, but increased it because rates were favorable, and because it was able to refund certain securities, according to officials.
Broadwing also has hired Tom Schilling to be its CFO for its Broadwing Communications unit--basically, the old IXC with its Gemini 2000 national fiber optic network and some applications additions from the old Cincinnati Bell. Schilling comes to Broadwing from AutoTrader.com (www.autotrader.com), which trades cars over the Internet.
Previously Schilling had worked with the former MCI Communications Inc. and Sprint Corp. (www.sprint.com). Officials say it is not coincidental they recruited Schilling from an e-commerce firm. However, they say they do not aim to make Broadwing into a "dot com" with an Internet backbone.
"We see ourselves as application enablers, not developers," says Doug Kellermann, vice president of alliances at Broadwing Communications. "As such, we form alliances with companies that have [applications] strengths in specific areas."
For example, Broadwing recently struck a deal with IBT Technologies Inc. (www.ibt-technologies.com), an ASP that sells training over the Internet.
"Their strength is Internet-based training," Kellermann says. "Our core strength is telecommunications transport service. With the Gemini 2000 network, our data center capability, and our sales force that we have, you put that together, it's a very, very strong package."
