Meduski, McMillin Join Kent at TierPoint

Mike Farrell — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 17:00:00 +0000

Former Suddenlink Communications EVP and chief financial officer Mary Meduski and former EVP and chief operating officer Tom McMillin have joined their former boss Jerry Kent at cloud-based managed services provider, TierPoint.

Meduski was named president and chief financial officer and McMillin president and chief operating officer of TierPoint. The two also will be investors in the company and will be come board members and members of the Office of the Chairman, TierPoint said in a statement. They will also serve in the same roles in TierPoint’s management company, Cequel III. Kent, who founded Suddenlink in 2002, was named CEO of TierPoint in July. He was already chairman of the company. Kent, Meduski and McMillin all left Suddenlink on Dec. 21, the day European telecom company closed its $9.1 billion acquisition of the cable operator.

"I first worked with Tom at Cencom Cable in the 1980s and with Mary at AAT Communications, starting in 2003," Kent said in a statement. "Since 2006, the three of us have enjoyed a phenomenal working relationship at Suddenlink, a company that consistently achieved financial and operating results among the best in its industry."

Kent added: "Mary and Tom are exceptionally skilled leaders, and I'm thrilled we can continue our partnership on behalf of TierPoint's customers, investors, and employees. The timing couldn't be better for these additions to the management team, with our recent acquisitions of AlteredScale's Chicago data center and Windstream's data center business."

The acquisition of AlteredScale's Chicago data center was announced on December 17, and the closing of the $575 million, all-cash transaction with Windstream was announced the next day.

Concurrent with Meduski and McMillin joining TierPoint, Andy Stewart will assume the position of chief strategy officer and report into the Office of the Chairman, focusing on merger and acquisition opportunities and product development.

"Andy's thorough understanding of this business and the industry relationships he has developed have been critical to TierPoint's success," Kent said. "We're delighted the company will continue to benefit from his considerable talents."

TierPoint is based in St. Louis, and operates data centers in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington.

TierPoint Buys Windstream Data Centers For $575M

Mike Farrell — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 19:30:00 +0000

TierPoint, a St. Louis-based national provider of cloud, cloud, colocation and managed services, has agreed to purchase Windstream’s data center business in an all cash transaction for $575 million.

As part of the deal, Windstream will establish an ongoing strategic partnership with TierPoint, allowing both companies to sell their respective products and services to each other’s prospective customers through referrals. This structure will allow Windstream to focus capital on its core telecom offerings while continuing to offer traditional data center services to enterprise customers across a broader data center footprint.

"Data center services will remain an integral component of our enterprise service offering." said Windstream CEO Tony Thomas in a statement. “We expect the divested data center business to continue its significant growth under the leadership of TierPoint, and we look forward to partnering closely with them to provide advanced data center services to our enterprise customers.”

The deal is expected to close in the next two-to-four months.

TierPoint is part of Cequel Data Centers, an arm of cable veteran Jerry Kent’s Cequel III. Kent has been chairman of TierPoint since 2014 and in July was named the company‘s CEO. Kent also serves as chairman and CEO of Suddenlink Communications, a St. Louis-based cable operator with about 1.2 million customers. In May, European telecom giant Altice agreed to purchase a 70% interest in Suddenlink for $9.1 billion. That deal is expected to close before the end of the year, upon which Kent has indicated he will exit the company.

In a statement, Kent said the Windstream data centers are a good fit. “Windstream Hosted Solutions and its employees have earned a reputation for providing excellent customer service and innovative enterprise-class solutions,” Kent said in the statement. “We value these team members as a key asset in the acquisition and their expertise adds to our strength and focus on providing a superior level of customer care. We’re also very pleased to enter into a long-term strategic partnership with Windstream, allowing both companies to leverage the expertise and respective strengths of our organizations.”

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