New York, October 21, 2015 -- On October 19, 2015, TierPoint LLC ("TierPoint") announced it entered into a definitive agreement with Windstream to acquire Windstream's data center business in an all-cash transaction for $575 million. The deal is expected to close within the next two to four months. Funding for the transaction has not been disclosed, though we anticipate the deal will be funded with a combination of debt and equity. Moody's views the transaction as credit negative because credit metrics will likely deteriorate in the short-term. Leverage is expected to increase from the debt undertaken to fund the deal, and free cash flow will remain negative due to the high capital intensity of the data center industry. Also, the acquisition is at a large purchase price multiple of about 12.5x EBITDA. Despite the expected increase in leverage and high purchase price, TierPoint's B3 corporate family rating is unaffected as Moody's views the transaction to be beneficial in the longer-term for TierPoint. Windstream's data center business is similar and complementary to TierPoint's business, and Windstream's hosted managed services suite can also be leveraged with TierPoint's service offerings. The transaction will provide TierPoint with the added scale to become a more formidable competitor in the data center industry.

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