Posted: 03/2000

Broadwing Secures $2.1 Billion in Private Equity;
Hires ‘E’ CFO
By Ken Branson

Hoping to become considerably more than the sum of its parts, Broadwing Inc. (www.broadwing.com) continues its metamorphosis.

Broadwing, which grew out of the merger late last year of the former Cincinnati Bell
Telephone Co. and the former IXC Communications Inc., has completed syndication of a
complex, $2.1 billion credit facility with a consortium of 24 banks. The leading banks are
PNC Bank Corp. (www.pncbank.com), Bank of New York
Co. Inc. (www.bankofny.com) and Credit Suisse First
Boston (www.csfb.com).

Broadwing originally had a $1.8 billion facility, but increased it because rates were
favorable, and because it was able to refund certain securities, according to officials.

Broadwing also has hired Tom Schilling to be its CFO for its Broadwing Communications
unit–basically, the old IXC with its Gemini 2000 national fiber optic network and some
applications additions from the old Cincinnati Bell. Schilling comes to Broadwing from
AutoTrader.com (www.autotrader.com), which trades
cars over the Internet.

Previously Schilling had worked with the former MCI Communications Inc. and Sprint
Corp. (www.sprint.com). Officials say it is not
coincidental they recruited Schilling from an e-commerce firm. However, they say they do
not aim to make Broadwing into a "dot com" with an Internet backbone.

"We see ourselves as application enablers, not developers," says Doug
Kellermann, vice president of alliances at Broadwing Communications. "As such, we
form alliances with companies that have [applications] strengths in specific areas."

For example, Broadwing recently struck a deal with IBT Technologies Inc. (www.ibt-technologies.com), an ASP that sells
training over the Internet.

"Their strength is Internet-based training," Kellermann says. "Our core
strength is telecommunications transport service. With the Gemini 2000 network, our data
center capability, and our sales force that we have, you put that together, it’s a very,
very strong package."