Windstream Holdings has completed its $1.1 Billion buyout of Earthlink, but hasn’t announced its plans yet for the two offices it will end up owning in Rochester.
Windstream arrived in Rochester when it acquired PaeTech Communications in 2011. It’s had an active presence in Rochester, building one of the first new buildings on the former Midtown Plaza land and sponsoring the “Party in the Park” summer concert series. Earthlink had more than 500 employees in Rochester at its height, in a large office space at Monroe Avenue and Alexander Street.
Windstream, which will keep its corporate headquarters in Arkansas, says it will eliminate some $150 million worth of redundancies between the two operations. But mostly wants to keep the Earthlink team along with the newly acquired business. They haven’t said if that means merging office space or changing the employment picture locally.
Earthlink brings a major fiber optic network, cloud computing services and network security products that will be new to Windstream.