August 16, 2006
US LEC Corp. and PAETEC Corp. sign definitive merger agreement, which will result in a combined company with an enterprise value of $1.3 billion.
On August 14, it was announced that US LEC Corp., a full-service provider of IP, data and voice solutions and PAETEC Corp., a privately-held supplier of communications solutions, have signed a definitive merger agreement, which will result in a combined company with an enterprise value of $1.3 billion. The equity value of the transaction is $450 million. Willkie represented Merrill Lynch & Co., financial adviser to PAETEC. Under the terms of the agreement, PAETEC and US LEC will become wholly-owned subsidiaries of a new publicly owned holding company. The combined company will continue to trade under US LEC's existing Nasdaq Global Market symbol, but will be called PAETEC Communications Corp. It will have over 45,000 customers and operate in 52 of the top 100 Metropolitan Service Areas (MSAs) in the United States. The deal was handled by partner Steven Seidman and associate Kelly Sutherland.