Yipes Acquires Subscribers

A multi-million dollar deal with bankruptcy courts governing Broadband Office means Yipes has rights to put its gigabit metro networks in more than 3,500 office buildings.

by Michael Singer of siliconvalley.internet.com [July 26, 2001]

Yipes Communications Wednesday said a federal bankruptcy court approved its bid to acquire rights to serve more than 3,500 office buildings formerly owned by Broadband Office, an in-building carrier that is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In conjunction with the Delaware court proceeding, Yipes has signed access agreements with nine major real estate entities, which own or control more than half of Broadband Office's portfolio.

The managed optical IP network provider says the deal smoothes the way for it to deliver high-speed, flexible data services to tenants of CarrAmerica, Crescent Real Estate Equities Company, Duke Realty, Equity Office, Highwoods, Hines, Mack-Cali Realty, Speiker Properties and TrizecHahn.

"This will dramatically accelerate the deployment of our gigabit metro networks directly to customer premises, greatly expanding our footprint," says Yipes CEO Jerry Parrick. "We look forward to a cooperative and mutually profitable relationship with these leaders of the real estate industry.

The court's approval gives Yipes rights to serve hundreds of millions of square feet of office space in two-dozen markets nationwide. About three-quarters of the portfolio is Class A office space and a majority of the buildings are in dense urban or near-urban areas.

For its winning bid, Yipes agreed to pay $2.0 million in cash and $2.5 million in equity and to forgive a $900,000 debtor-in-possession bridge loan that Yipes made to Broadband Office.

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