OneEighty cuts management posts

Spokane telecom company OneEighty Networks has cut four management positions and sold some of its Oregon operations in an attempt to become profitable, company founder and CEO Greg Green said.

Among those who left was Chad Skidmore, OneEighty’s chief technology officer. A partner since the data-network provider was formed in 2001, Skidmore will continue as a consultant, Green said. Skidmore is a minority shareholder in the company and a member of its board of directors.

OneEighty was launched by Green after he bought parts of the data network created and run by Avista Communications. The company provides data services for business and residential customers in Washington, Idaho and Oregon.

Green said he has put more than $500,000 of his own money into the company to cover “cash flow deficiencies,” most of which involve repayment of debt.

“My wife and I sat down and decided that we had to make some changes,” said Green.

In addition to Skidmore, OneEighty’s managers in charge of customer service, operations and finance have left the company, Green said. That leaves the privately held firm with 22 employees, he said.

Those reductions, plus the sale of network operations in Bend and Madras, Ore., should make the company profitable, Green added. “July is turning into one of the better months we’ve had,” he said.

This spring, OneEighty Networks sold its Bend operation to Oregon-based Unicom for roughly $575,000, Green said. “That was one of the markets that just wasn’t profitable for us,” he said. The deal amounted to 1,500 dial-up and broadband customers in the Bend area.

“Our biggest focus now is to take care of our customers, our employees and to grow the business,” said Green, who owns roughly 89 percent of the company.

Skidmore said he and other managers opposed some of the acquisitions OneEighty made in the past three years. Those included acquiring customers from smaller companies in Bend, Umatilla, Pendleton and Redmond, Ore., and in Walla Walla.

Those extra markets caused the company to lose its primary focus of providing services to its major markets in Washington and Idaho.

“I feel we would have been in better shape if we had kept our nose to the grindstone,” said Skidmore.

Replied Green: “We made the acquisitions because we felt that was the best way to grow.”

Both Skidmore and Green said the company had been seeking a partner for additional operating cash. “We were very close to one deal (for a partner),” said Green. “But I then decided I’d rather do it on my own.”

The company now has about 7,000 customers. Most of them are residential, but business customers provide the bulk of OneEighty’s revenue, said Green.

Among its business customers are several area school districts, KHQ-TV and Cowles Publishing, which owns The Spokesman-Review.

Green said the changes will not affect OneEighty’s participation in the Spokane HotZone, the free wireless network covering about 100 square blocks of downtown Spokane.

“We’re totally committed to the HotZone,” said Green. OneEighty charges nothing to the city and to other companies that help manage the downtown wireless network.