Tech company sold in $230M deal

ST. PETERSBURG — Tower Cloud Inc., a St. Petersburg-based fiber optics company, was acquired by Little Rock, Ark.-based Communications Sales & Leasing Inc. for $230 million in cash and stock, a statement says.

Privately held Tower Cloud provides data transport services, with a primary focus on providing infrastructure solutions to the wireless and enterprise sectors. Its fiber network consists of 90,000 fiber strand miles in service across the southeastern United States, the statement says.

More than 90% of Tower Cloud's revenues are from national wireless carriers, the statement says. That national access will increase CS&L's exposure to those carriers with long-term contractual revenues.

“Tower Cloud significantly expands our backhaul network and greatly accelerates our entry into the high growth small cell and dark fiber businesses,” says Kenny Gunderman, president and CEO of CS&L, in the statement.

The $230 million deal includes $180 million in cash and the issuance of 1.9 million shares of CS&L common stock (symbol: CSAL; recent price: $27.35). The transaction is expected to close by early fourth quarter 2016.