AboveNet was a provider of high

bandwidth Bandwidth commonly refers to: * Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range * Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...

telecommunication circuit A telecommunication circuit is a path in a telecommunications network used to transmit information. Circuits have evolved from generally being built on physical connections between individual hardware cables, as in an analog phone switch, to v ...

s primarily for large corporate enterprises and communications carriers in 17 markets in the United States and 4 markets in Europe. Its private optical network delivered key network and IP services and was used in financial and legal services, media, health care, retail, and government. The company was formerly named Metromedia Fiber Network and changed its name to AboveNet in 2003 after emerging from

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

. Before its bankruptcy in 2002, the company was financially backed by

John Kluge John Werner Kluge (; September 21, 1914September 7, 2010) was a German-American entrepreneur who became a television industry mogul in the United States. At one time he was the richest person in the U.S. Early life and education Kluge was b ...

and

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

. In 2012, the company was acquired by

Zayo Group Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., or Zayo Group, is a privately held company headquartered in Denver, CO, U.S. with European headquarters in London, England. The company provides communications infrastructure services, including fiber and bandwidth c ...

for $2.2 billion in cash.

History

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The company was founded in 1993 as AboveNet, by founder Sherman Tuan. It initially focused on 'one-hop' internet connectivity and providing

dark fiber A dark fibre or unlit fibre is an unused optical fibre, available for use in fibre-optic communication. Dark fibre may be leased from a network service provider. Dark fibre originally referred to the potential network capacity of telecommuni ...

to communications carrier customers in the U.S. and Europe. Abovenet Communications became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

in December 1998 and soared 32% in one day in March 1999 during the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

after announcing a

stock split A stock split or stock divide increases the number of shares in a company. For example, after a 2-for-1 split, each investor will own double the number of shares, and each share will be worth half as much. A stock split causes a decrease of mar ...

. In June 1999, Metromedia acquired Abovenet Communications, including its subsidiary

PAIX PAIX, the Palo Alto Internet eXchange, was a neutral Internet exchange point. PAIX began operations in 1996 as the Palo Alto Internet Exchange in Palo Alto, California, and was owned and operated by Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equi ...

, an operator of Internet

peering In computer networking, peering is a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the "down-stream" users of each network. Peering is settlement-free, also known as "bill-a ...

exchanges. Following the acquisition, the company changed its name to Metromedia Fiber Network in 2000. In 2000, the company acquired M.I.B.H., a networking consultancy operated by

Paul Vixie Paul Vixie is an American computer scientist whose technical contributions include Domain Name System (DNS) protocol design and procedure, mechanisms to achieve operational robustness of DNS implementations, and significant contributions to open s ...

, for $51 million in cash and stock. Also in 2000,

invested $970 million in

convertible bond In finance, a convertible bond, convertible note, or convertible debt (or a convertible debenture if it has a maturity of greater than 10 years) is a type of bond that the holder can convert into a specified number of shares of common stock in ...

s and $715.4 million in common stock of the company. In 2001, the company acquired SiteSmith, a provider of managed web-hosting services, for $1.36 billion in stock. In May 2002, the company filed

. In September 2003, the company emerged from bankruptcy and changed its name to Abovenet, with

Craig McCaw Craig McCaw (born August 11, 1949) is an American businessman and entrepreneur, a pioneer in the cellular phone industry. He is the founder of McCaw Cellular (now part of AT&T Mobility) and Clearwire Corporation (now part of T-Mobile via the Sp ...

, Franklin Mutual Advisers, and

among its largest shareholders. In October 2006,

Digital Realty Digital Realty is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and invests in carrier-neutral data centers across the world. The company offers data center, colocation, and interconnection services. As of June 2023, Digital Realty ha ...

acquired the east coast

data center A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. Since IT operations are crucial for busines ...

s of the company for $40 million. In 2007, the company acquired fiber from

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

and Verizon that the companies were selling to comply with antitrust law. On July 2, 2012,

acquired the company for $2.2 billion in cash.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abovenet 1998 initial public offerings 2012 mergers and acquisitions Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002 Defunct telecommunications companies of the United States Dot-com bubble Metromedia