Frontier Selling Telco, Web Assets in Northwest for $1.35B

of the country may also be on the block, noted Wells Fargo's Jennifer Fritzsche. She and others noted some of Frontier's assets now being sold were themselves previously acquired from others. The operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana include some unionized workers, union officials told us. The Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers didn't comment. Of the 1,000 employees who will switch to the new company, about 800 belong to CWA and IBEW, "and the buyer will assume responsibility for the existing collective bargaining agreements," a Frontier spokesperson emailed us. Unions in other states have complained about telcos' service. Frontier customer complaints in Washington state have increased in recent years but not in some of the other three states, we found. Frontier "will be working very closely with the new owners to ensure a smooth, successful transition,” said CEO Dan McCarthy Wednesday. There have been issues during similar transitions involving other companies. The acquirer declined to comment. The Oregon Citizens' Utility Board's take is "one of caution before digging into the details," Outreach Manager Samuel Pastrick emailed us. "Any sale of Frontier's Oregon assets must represent good value and consideration for their customers, particularly those who have not historically or do not currently benefit from the IP transition." Eric Zinterhofer, founding partner of Searchlight Capital Partners, which is helping buy the operations along with Steve Weed's WaveDivision Capital, noted Weed and colleagues have built "best-in-class fiber networks" that "will enable us to accelerate the deployment of superior next generation products.” As "WaveDivision ran and sold a cable company in this geographic region," Fritzsche emailed investors, "they know the market very well and clearly have operational experience." The analyst still "firmly" thinks the fragmented rural "LEC group overall needs to see consolidation." CenturyLink may consider selling its consumer business (see 1905090008). Besides DOJ and the FCC, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., Montana, Oregon and Washington regulators and some local video franchise authorities will review the transaction, Frontier said. It expects to complete the sale within a year. "CFIUS must review the transaction because a Canadian venture fund is one of the limited partners in Searchlight," said Frontier's spokesperson. As of March 31, the carrier had in the four states about 150,000 fiber broadband and as many copper broadband connections.