Birch Completes Acquisition Of DayStar Communications Assets

ATLANTA, Oct. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Birch Communications, a leading IP-based telecom and managed services provider to small- and medium-sized businesses, announced today that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of the assets of DayStar Communications ("DayStar").  DayStar was a facilities-based telecommunications service provider that served customers throughout several major markets in southwest Florida and other areas of the southeastern United States.  This transaction marks the 16^th acquisition Birch has completed since 2006.

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"Today is yet another significant step forward as we advance our multi-year 'tuck-in' acquisition strategy designed to build customer density throughout our 38-state footprint," said Vincent M. Oddo, Birch president and CEO. "Through this acquisition, Birch continues its recent expansion into southwest Florida.  DayStar's Metaswitch-based facilities network, and many thousands of business customers, fit very well into our growing facilities-based enterprise."

"We are proud to welcome the former Daystar customers into the Birch family, and look forward to introducing them to our award-winning customer service," said Chris Aversano, Birch chief operating officer. "We are also excited to introduce the former DayStar customers to our expanded portfolio of leading-edge IP-based services. In the months and years to come, we plan to continue the expansion of our service footprint, and the scope of the products and services we offer to stay ahead of the needs of our business customers."

"We're excited to add the DayStar markets to our growing network service area through this highly-accretive acquisition.  As a result of this asset acquisition, Birch added several jobs in those southwest Florida markets, as well as in our Customer Operations Center in Macon, Georgia," said Edward James, Birch chief financial officer.  "True to our model, our integration activities are substantially complete and full integration will be completed within the next 90 days." 

About Birch Communications

Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Birch Communications provides managed communications and information technology services to a target market of small and medium-sized businesses in select metropolitan areas within 38 states across the United States.  Birch services include local and long distance voice, broadband Internet access, T1, PRI, bonded T1, mobile voice and data, e-mail, voicemail, prepaid, and many other communications and information technology services.  Birch voice and data services are, in most cases, delivered using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology on the company's secure IP-Network rather than over the public Internet. 

According to Inc. 500|5000 magazine in its 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2004 rankings, Birch is one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States.  In 2010, Birch was also named the 7^th fastest growing private business in Atlanta, and in 2011 as one of the Top 100 Private Companies in Atlanta, by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.  Please visit www.birch.com for more information.

SOURCE Birch Communications