AT&T to acquire Lumen’s Mass Markets fiber-to-the-home business for a total consideration of $5.75 billion in cash.
Lumen Technologies has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Lumen’s Mass Markets fiber-to-the-home business, including Quantum Fiber, in eleven states to AT&T for a total of $5.75 billion in cash, subject to working capital and other various purchase price adjustments.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026,
“We are sharpening our focus on enterprise customers and this transaction enhances our financial flexibility, enabling us to reimagine networking for enterprises in a multi-cloud, AI-first world,” said Kate Johnson, President and CEO, Lumen.
“As part of this deal, we are retaining the core infrastructure that allows us to continue innovating for enterprise customers, leap frogging traditional networking architectures to give customers the bandwidth, performance and security they need.
“The fiber-to-the-home business being sold is tremendously valuable thanks to the incredible work by the team and will now have even greater opportunity to grow with AT&T’s scale, consumer-focus, and investment.”
AT&T’s acquisition includes approximately 95% of Quantum Fiber, approximately four million enablements and nearly one million subscribers as of March 31, 2025.
Based on first quarter 2025 results, these customers would generate over $750 million of annualized revenue. Lumen expects to build out new fiber enablements at a similar pace as 2024 through year end 2025.
Lumen will retain assets that will continue to serve as the foundation of its enterprise transformation, including all national, regional, state and metro level fiber backbone network infrastructure, central offices and associated real estate. The enterprise and wholesale fiber customers will remain with Lumen in all geographies. In addition, Lumen will retain and care for its existing copper network, which primarily services consumer customers.
Upon closing, Lumen intends to use the net proceeds of approximately $4.2 billion and cash on hand to pay down approximately $4.8 billion in superpriority debt, reducing its interest expense by approximately $300 million annually.
Following the $8.5 billion in AI-driven networking contracts with hyperscalers, Lumen plans to expand its vast nationwide footprint, scaling to 47 million intercity fiber miles by 2028.
In addition, the Company will continue to scale the Lumen Digital platform to simplify customer experiences for businesses seeking quick, secure, effortless networking services.
Lastly, Lumen will strategically leverage the combination of its physical infrastructure and digital platform to deliver increased performance, capacity, intelligence and security through new, innovative network architectures such as Direct Fiber Access (DFAs), Cloud On-ramps, and Multicloud Gateways.
Johnson said: “Lumen has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a digital networking company that will serve the needs of enterprise customers. Today, that’s in support of AI, and on the horizon, it’s quantum computing. This strategic decision is grounded in the expansive critical infrastructure we’re retaining and the forward-thinking digital future we’re building.”
