Zayo Group.

• Author: Lewis, David
• Position: TELECOM

ZAYO GROUP MAY BE THE MOST PRECOCIOUS 5-year-old you will ever know.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Founded in 2005, Zayo Group already has annual revenue approaching $1 billion. Zayo revenue is growing at an annual rate of 12 percent, while EBITDA is growing 20 percent annually.

Just as important, Zayo Group owns 68,500 route miles of fiber network, and almost 4.9 million fiber miles; Zayo has 10,000 buildings on its network, 500 carrier hotels and data centers, and 2,500 cell towers.

Clearly, the company has racked up some serious numbers in a seriously short span of time.

"The market will need a ton more bandwidth every year, and you've got to have fiber in the ground to provide bandwidth," says CEO Dan Caruso.

You will recall that around a decade back, the fiber infrastructure industry looked decidedly tuckered out.

Debt and a slump in bandwidth demand had walloped the industry in the early part of this century. That's when three icons of Colorado business history collided. ICG Communications had $100 million in debt and $30 million in cash, which it was burning at a rate of S8 million per month.

In 2004, an investor group including Caruso bought ICG Communications for a song, S8.7...