Sioux City, Iowa — The telecommunications company that recently purchased Orange City Communications, is itself being purchased by an Indiana company.
Long Lines says they agreed to be acquired by Schurz Communications, Inc., a diversified, privately-owned communications firm based near South Bend, Indiana. The sale is expected to close during the first quarter of 2015, following governmental approvals. Schurz intends to retain Long Lines’ current management and employees.
Over ten years ago, Long Lines joined forces with the city of Orange City to start Orange City Communications. This past August, Orange City voters voted to sell their portion of the communications utility to Long Lines.
Long Lines provides telephone, cable TV and internet broadband services to more than 20,000 business and residential customers in the metro Sioux City area and in Orange City, Mapleton, and other communities in Woodbury, Monona, Ida, and Harrison counties. Long Lines more than doubled the size of its fiber network during 2014, now extending as far east as Algona, IA and as far south as Omaha. Long Lines sold their wireless service, Long Lines Wireless to AT&T about a year ago.
Schurz operates cable systems serving 90,000 customers in Indiana, Florida, Maryland, and Arizona. Schurz also owns a number of media outlets across the U.S., including 11 television stations and 12 radio stations – among them KOTA-TV in Rapid City, SD – and publishes 11 daily and 8 weekly newspapers with a combined circulation of 225,000 readers. Like Long Lines, Schurz has always been a family-owned and operated company.
Brent Olson, CEO of Long Lines, says that joining the Schurz family of companies will allow the company to continue to provide the highest level of service and value to Long Lines customers. He says that the support from Schurz will allow expansion of HD programming, an increase in internet speeds, and availability to more customers.
