**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in Nov.-Dec. 2015.**

Master agent Telecom Brokers is making its sixth acquisition in the past year.

This time, it’s another master agency.

Telecom Brokers is taking over the assets and customer base of Ethertel Networks. California-based Telecom Brokers hails the move as part of a strategy to expand into the Southeast. Ethertel is located in Nashville, Tennessee, and its branch office will “act as a linchpin” for southern expansion. It marks the first time that Telecom Brokers has converted a master agency into a company extension.

“We plan on putting Telecom Brokers on the map in the Southeast, and creating the type of brand awareness that so many master agencies don’t currently have,” Ethertel President Wes Spining said. “Businesses today deserve transparency with the carrier options available to them, and carriers need to be able to trust that their portfolios of products and services are being correctly presented to their target audience. We’re here to provide both.”{ad}

Telecom Brokers will keep Spining as vice president of sales in the South. Dom Antonini, Telecom Brokers’ president, emphasized the importance of the acquisition.

“We offered Wes a sizeable signing bonus to become part of the team and to remain exclusive to Telecom Brokers, because we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to establish a location in the South with such a quality team. I could not be more excited for the year ahead for our combined forces,” Antonini said.

Ethertel brings a customer base of about 600 businesses spanning 30 states.

“We are proud of what we’ve built in Nashville, and I’m excited to forge these two businesses together to create something bigger,” Spining said.

Channel Partners reported on a similar type of acquisition last June, when Telecom Brokers acquired the customer base and assets of Global Communications 2000.

Antonini said at the time that simply buying the customer base and assets instead of the whole company can be a good financial decision. He also said his company was on the hunt for other master agencies.

“I’m ready to acquire more agencies immediately and currently am in negotiations for a potential next deal,” he told Channel Partners. “I’m looking to add $10 million per year in revenue through acquisitions. In terms of what that looks like, it could come from few big deals, or lots of little ones. It doesn’t matter to me, the companies just have to be a good fit.”