MBS Holdings Nears Acquisition of Alteva

By Casey Houser
Contributing Writer

MBS Holdings, also known as Momentum (News - Alert) Telecom – a provider of VoIP, broadband, and unified communications services – may soon acquire Alteva, a provider of unified communications-as-a-service. This past week, Alteva (News - Alert) again announced that its shareholders have voted to allow a merger between the two companies; it also introduced the expectation that the merger will close in about a month.

Back in October of this year, the Alteva shareholders voted at the company’s Annual Shareholder Meeting. Voting members in that meeting constituted 73 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, so those members’ collective vote of 83 percent in favor of the merger will allow the deal to move forward.

TMC (News - Alert) previously reported on the “Alteva Dilemma” – the situation where the company has been able to find growth in the hosted unified communications (UC) market but no profits attached to that growth. Basically, it means the company could be worth something big if it could turn a profit. The UC market, overall, is expected to show growth through at least 2018, and the hosted segment is a big part of that field. For many players in any part of the market, the influx of new players can make it hard to compete, and Alteva has found itself doing well but perhaps not well enough.

This is why a merger into MBS Holdings could do the company a lot of good. MBS has a strong standing and can leverage its own power as a UC provider to extend the reach of Alteva’s cloud-based tools. MBS President and CEO Bill Fox commented earlier this year on the shared vision of both companies:

“Alteva shares our dedication to providing top-notch reliability and service to its customers,” Fox said.

It was back in September that this deal really started moving. Both companies went public about their collective agreement to make this merger happen for $27.8 million. In the end, that closing price will give Alteva shareholders a share price of $4.70 each. For the time being, the closing will depend on finalization of regulations for the jurisdictions in which MBS operates.