OneEighty Communications purchased for $9.5 million

OneEighty Communications, a Billings, Mont., company partly owned by Spokane telecommunications entrepreneur Greg Green, is being acquired for $9.5 million by a Minneapolis firm.

The deal does not include Spokane-based OneEighty Networks, also owned by Green. However, Green will invest about $1 million of the proceeds from the sale into his Spokane company, said Jenny Terrell, OneEighty Networks’ vice president of sales and marketing.

Green said in a press release that the infusion of cash from the sale will be used for capital investments and to reduce company debt.

The Minneapolis company buying OneEighty Communications is Eschelon Telecom, Inc., which provides voice and data services and business telephone systems in 23 western U.S. markets.

Green founded OneEighty Communications in 1998, then sold a majority stake to Spokane-based Avista Corp. the next year. He became president of a subsidiary called Avista Communications. When Avista decided to refocus on the energy business, the company sold parts of the communications operation back to Green and four partners.

Green’s OneEighty Networks bought Avista Communications’ broadband data operations in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area in 2002. At the time, OneEighty Networks was described as a companion company to OneEighty Communications.

OneEighty Networks provides Internet services in Spokane, Walla Walla, the Tri-Cities, Coeur d’Alene and Pendleton, Ore.