April 24, 2002 -- Universal Access Global Holdings Inc. is withdrawing its bid to acquire the assets of bankrupt network services provider Sphera Optical Networks, the company said last night.
Universal Access, which provides interconnections for carriers and ISPs, also announced that chief financial officer Bob Brown had left the company "to pursue other interests." Donald J. Zyck, Jr., currently senior vice president of finance, will become the interim CFO while the company searches for a successor.
Sphera filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, and promptly sold its seven metropolitan fiber rings to Universal Access. The deal would have allowed Universal Access to double its network footprint with the addition of the metro rings in New York City, New Jersey, Washington DC, Virginia, Dallas, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
At the time, the companies said they expected to complete the deal within 90 days. But last night Universal Access said that a number of key conditions of the deal had not been met, and said "further efforts to complete the transaction were unlikely to be successful." Universal Access also said it would seek to terminate the interim financing it had provided to Sphera.
Universal Access has seen a change of fortunes since it agreed to the deal. On March 22 the company said it was withdrawing its financial guidance for the remainder of the year after a major customer, Aleron, filed Chapter 11.
Aleron's bankruptcy is expected to reduce Universal Access' first quarter revenues by approximately $4.8 million.
Sphera, based in Edison, N.J., offers metro connections to businesses through an all-optical networks using DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) switching technology.
Chicago-based Universal Access specializes in connectivity services, and maintains data center facilities and a database of network availability.