MontanaSky Deal Is Latest in String of Acquisitions for Vero Fiber
Private capital is moving on small and regional fiber providers
August 24, 2026 – Two competitors that spent years building overlapping fiber in the same corner of Montana have been folded into a single organization.
Vero Fiber announced last week its plans to acquire Flathead Valley-based internet service provider MontanaSky. Vero had already absorbed a former Flathead Valley competitor, Montana Digital, in March 2025.
“Building on the foundation we established with Montana Digital in early 2025, we're creating an organization with the scale, local expertise and financial strength to become the region’s leading locally operated fiber broadband provider,” Sunita Krishna, CEO of Vero Fiber, said in the release.
MontanaSky operated more than 240 route miles of fiber and 148 wireless access points as of 2022.
Vero is not acquiring MontanaSky’s wireless assets. Under a separate agreement, MontanaSky took over service for MtnMax’s fixed-wireless customer base, effective Aug. 1, 2025.
The transaction has been executed by both parties and remains subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions. The companies expect to close immediately following.
An acquisition strategy straight out of Zayo's playbook
For Boulder, Colorado, startup Vero, the move is the latest in an aggressive multi-year acquisition spree that has turned it into a rapidly consolidating national fiber platform.
Vero Networks – legally VFN Holdings, Inc., and doing business under a rotating cast of names including Vero Fiber, Vero Broadband and its subsidiary Clearnetworx – was founded in 2017 by a group of former Zayo Group executives, including Zayo co-founder Matt Erickson.
Zayo, one of the largest telecommunications infrastructure and fiber network providers in North America and Europe, was acquired by private equity in 2020 for roughly $14 billion, and Vero’s founding team has largely followed the same playbook: build a fiber backbone, then grow fast through acquisition.
That strategy has accelerated sharply over the past 18 months. Vero acquired the aforementioned Montana Digital deal in March 2025, which added roughly 261 route miles of fiber and more than 1,500 customers in Kalispell, Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Bigfork.
It then acquired Central Oregon provider BendTel in December 2025, entered a merger agreement with century-old Mississippi carrier Telephone Electronics Corporation that closed in April 2026, and finalized the purchase of Velocity Fiber, a four-state K-12 E-Rate specialist, just this July.
The TEC deal alone extended Vero’s footprint from the western U.S. into the Southeast, adding a 4,500-mile fiber network and bringing the combined company’s reach to roughly 444,000 households.
Vero’s buying spree has been fueled by a steady stream of institutional capital. The company raised $80 million in preferred equity in 2024 from Delta-v Capital and funds managed by Hamilton Lane, then expanded an existing credit facility to $240 million, with room to grow to $310 million, in February 2025.
In February 2026, Vero closed a $500 million non-control growth equity investment led by Hamilton Lane, Braemont Capital and Delta-v Capital, explicitly earmarked to fund both organic buildout and “continuing strategic M&A across new and existing U.S. markets.” Delta-v partner Rand Lewis noted his firm has backed the Vero team going back to their Zayo days
Back in Montana, a local ISP gets a new owner
MontanaSky CEO Ryan Bowman framed the combination as a way to compete more effectively against incumbent providers, arguing it will mean “more choice, better service, and more competitive pricing” for customers.
For MontanaSky customers the company says: “Current plans and pricing will stay the same initially. As the integration progresses, it may offer new plans with better value. In general, most customers will receive faster speeds at a reduced rate,” according to an FAQ about the transaction.
MontanaSky has been a fixture of Northwest Montana’s internet landscape since 1993, when founder Frederick Weber launched what was then a dial-up service near Eureka.
The company, which began major investments in fiber in 2011 and fixed-wireless in 2017, grew over three decades into a full-service local ISP across Flathead, Lake and Lincoln counties from offices in Kalispell and Libby.
