Today, a Minnesota company has been purchased by a corporation outside of Minnesota, for the second time.
A Brief history…
Vector Internet Services, Inc. started in October, 1994.
In July of 1996, I went to work at Vector (as it was known then) along with some of my old Winternet crew.
In May of 2000, VISI.com (as it was called) was sold to DSL.net out of New Haven, CT. Details of this sale are available to anyone who can use Google and has a little bit of time (ticker was DSLN).
In May of 2004, I left VISI.com out of boredom – DSLN really didn’t allow for any growth in the business or employee potential. Yes, I have a small chip on my shoulder about DSLN.
In December of 2005, Digital North purchased VISI.com for $3.3M and later renamed itself to VISI.
In March of 2010, VISI sells to TDS Telecom for $17.8M out of Madison, WI (Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. is out of Chicago and is the parent organization)
My largest competitor in the local market has been sold for its 3rd time, though I don’t know if that’ll be the charm.
I am sad to see them go. I’ll also miss the competition in the local marketplace for ‘largest locally owned & operated service provider in the state of Minnesota’, though I can think of worse ways to go
Best wishes and good luck to everyone still employed with VISI, and to the customers who continue to use VISI today and in the future.
References:
- Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. acquires VISI Incorporated (from TDS)
- Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. acquires VISI Incorporated (from VISI)
- VISI sold to Wisconsin Firm; no layoffs planned (twincities.com)
- Managed-hosting firm VISI sold for $17.8 million (finance-commerce.com)
- TDS Partnership to Fuel VISI Growth (from blog.visi.com and Mike Sowada)
- news.google.com search query