Uniti, Windstream said to be in talks on reuniting firms

Bloomberg News reported Friday that Uniti Group Inc. and Windstream Holdings Inc. are talking about a reunification. Officials with both companies declined to comment Wednesday.

Bloomberg reported the companies are discussing a stock-based transaction that would allow Uniti to remain publicly traded. An agreement hasn’t been reached and talks could break down without one, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the deal.

The two Little Rock communications providers have a knotty history and were united as one company until 2015, when Windstream spunoff the company that became Uniti.

Today, each relies on the other: Windstream is Uniti’s largest source of revenue and Windstream depends on Uniti to provide the fiber-optic data lines needed to reach customers.

After the spin-off, Windstream was pushed into bankruptcy over financial terms related to the transaction. Windstream finalized its debt restructuring out of bankruptcy in September 2020 and emerged as a privately held company owned by Elliott Investment Management of New York. Elliott also owns 4% of Uniti.

Uniti shareholders and the investment community have been encouraging the Little Rock fiber provider to make a major transaction for the past few years. Uniti has said it is open to a deal but under disciplined financial terms.

Uniti shares closed Wednesday at $5.64, up 1.26%. That puts the company’s market value at about $1.2 billion. The stock price is up 13% over the past five days.

Uniti owns about 138,000 fiber route miles and 8.3 million fiber strand miles in the U.S. The company also operates wireless towers and its customers are some of the world’s largest wireless and technology providers. Windstream provides local telephone service and broadband to mostly rural customers though it also offers cloudbased services.