Zayo deepens metro fiber scale with $4.25B Crown Castle’s fiber solutions acquisition

Zayo sees Crown Castle’s metro-focused fiber assets as extending its reach into key geographies.

Steve M. Smith, Zayo's CEO, said, “This acquisition strengthens our ability to deliver low-latency, high-capacity fiber solutions our customers need to scale in an increasingly data-driven world.”

New implications

This acquisition has implications for both Zayo and Crown Castle.

Zayo will enhance its profile in the wavelength services market, where it has competed with not only Crown Castle but also Tier 1 incumbent players like AT&T, Lumen, and Verizon.

According to Vertical Systems Group, the escalating surge of AI applications is a major purchase driver for 100+ Gbps wavelengths. The research firm also noted that customers purchasing 400 Gbps wavelength services include top hyperscalers, financial entities, data centers, media and entertainment companies, and cloud providers.

For Crown Castle, the sale represents the end of a review of its assets.

In December 2023, Crown Castle’s Board of Directors established a Fiber Review Committee to conduct a strategic and operating review of the Company’s small cells and fiber solutions businesses to enhance shareholder value. As a result, Crown Castle will refocus its efforts on being a wireless tower operator.

"Selling our Fiber segment represents a significant step on Crown Castle’s path towards a refined focus as a pure-play provider of multi-tenant tower assets," stated Stephen Moskowitz, CEO of Crown Castle.

A complementary fit

Crown Castle’s fiber assets offer Zayo complementary reach into major markets.

The company’s existing long-haul networks will connect data centers nationwide, enabling connectivity in cities and rural communities nationwide.

With the Crown Castle assets, Zayo will provide enterprises with improved access to the networks that power cloud computing and AI. It will add approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber to Zayo’s network and increase its overall reach to more than 70,000 on-net locations.

Small cell opportunities

Another key element of the acquisition is small cells.

Zayo will acquire Crown Castle’s Fiber Solutions business as part of the Crown Castle fiber deal, while EQT Active Core Infrastructure fund will independently acquire Crown Castle’s Small Cells business for $4.25.

With the acquisitions, Zayo and the Small Cells business will enter into a long-term commercial agreement for Zayo to provide fiber to the Small Cells business. The total combined value of the Fiber Solutions and Small Cells transactions is $8.5 billion.

Crown Castle operates a nationwide portfolio of approximately 115,000 small cells on air or under contract spread across 43 states, serving the top three U.S. mobile network operators.

Alexander Greenbaum, Partner and Head of EQT's Active Core Infrastructure Advisory team said, "This investment is a natural fit within EQT Active Core Infrastructure's strategy - investing behind long-term contracted, core infrastructure assets with strong growth potential. 

The deal will close in the first half of 2026 after meeting customary regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.

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