Bayard Group has completed its acquisition of Cellnet and associated subsidiaries. Cellnet will continue to operate out of its Atlanta-area headquarters and nationwide regional offices as an independent company within the Bayard Group portfolio.
The close of the Bayard acquisition follows completion of a record 2006 for Cellnet that was highlighted by a number of important achievements:
- Cellnet executed agreements valued at nearly $220 million with several new and existing utility clients for over 1.3 million new advanced metering end-customers. Cellnet increased its long-term contract backlog during the year to over $2.22 billion.
- Cellnet rapidly expanded its UtiliNet line of two-way solutions with the release of a record number of new endpoints and partner-driven solutions.
- Cellnet and its utility customers installed over 1 million new on-demand, advanced metering customer endpoints bringing the active total under network to over 11 million.
- Cellnet grew annualized revenue by 17 percent and made important infrastructure investments while adding 21 percent more staff in anticipation of continued rapid growth.
- Cellnet and its customers continued to lead the market, a demonstration of the proven value of advanced metering and, as a result, received awards and recognition from organizations including Frost & Sullivan, Platts, and Chartwell.
Following Cellnet's acquisition by Bayard, Mike Zito has decided to pursue other interests and has stepped down from his position of CEO. However, Zito has agreed to be a special advisor to Cellnet and Bayard. O'Reilly will be acting as CEO while Bayard conducts a targeted search for a new permanent CEO. Cellnet will continue to operate as an independent entity led by the existing management team and reporting to an independent board, which O'Reilly will chair.
"I would like to pay tribute to Mike Zito's contribution and success with Cellnet, as that success has led to our acquisition of a truly remarkable company," said O'Reilly.
