Buying a company? Check its telecom before closing.
When you buy a company, you also buy its phone and internet contracts, its circuits and its phone numbers, often with nobody left who knows the details. Here is what to ask for before closing, what can go wrong, and what to do in the first 90 days.
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The short version
- When you buy a company, its telecom contracts, circuits and phone numbers usually come with it. Most of it was set up by people who may not stay after closing.
- Ask for four things before closing: recent invoices from each provider, the signed contracts, the list of phone numbers, and who holds the admin logins.
- Whether a contract moves to you, and on what terms, depends on how the deal is structured and on the contract's assignment clause. Your deal attorney decides that part.
- After closing, cancel nothing until you know what it feeds. Then line up the renewal dates and decide what to combine at each one.
What you inherit at closing
Deal teams look closely at leases, payroll and customer contracts. Phone and internet service tends to get one line in the checklist, if that. Then the deal closes, the seller's office manager or IT person moves on, and the first carrier renewal notice goes to an inbox nobody reads.
Here is what usually comes along with the company:
- Contracts with time left on them, some set to auto-renew, some with early termination fees.
- Circuits at each location, sometimes with more than one carrier, and sometimes billed to a site the company left years ago.
- Phone numbers customers already know, sitting on accounts in the seller's name.
- Copper lines for fire alarm panels, elevator phones and security systems that are easy to cancel by mistake.
- Accounts paid on a personal credit card or set up under a former owner's name and email.
- A phone system, an IT provider or an MSP with its own agreement and its own end date.
None of this should stop a deal. It is a list of things to find before closing, while the people who set them up are still around to answer questions. Our post on why multi-location telecom falls apart shows what happens when nobody does.
Four things to ask for before closing
Add these to the diligence request list. They take the seller an afternoon to pull, and they answer most of the questions you will have later.
Provider invoices
Recent invoices from each phone, internet, wireless, security and hosting provider, for each location. Invoices show what is actually being billed, including the services nobody remembers ordering.
The signed contracts
Each agreement with its amendments and order forms: the term, the end date, the auto-renewal clause, the notice period and the early termination terms. Ask whether any contract says what happens on a change of ownership.
The phone number list
Every main number, direct line, toll-free number and fax line, which account each one sits on, and who is listed as the account holder. That is what you need to keep the numbers later.
Logins and contacts
Who has the admin login for each carrier portal, the phone system, the firewall and the domain registrar, and whose email gets the carrier notices. Get these moved before people leave.
Contracts and phone numbers: whose name is on them
Two questions decide most of the work after closing: can you keep the contracts you want, and can you keep the phone numbers.
- Contracts: if you buy the company itself, its contracts usually stay with that company. If you buy only its assets, contracts often have to be assigned to you, and many carrier agreements need the carrier's written consent first. Some contracts also say what happens on a change of ownership. Your deal attorney decides how each one is handled. This post isn't legal advice.
- Phone numbers: a number belongs to the account it is on. To move it to another carrier later, the account holder has to authorize the port, and the details on the request have to match the carrier's records. Get the account numbers, the PINs and the authority to sign for each account while the seller's team can still help.
- Logins: if a former employee holds the only admin login to a carrier portal or the phone system, getting it back can take weeks of calls. Ask for it before closing.
If an inherited contract has more time on it than you want, read your real options for getting out early before you call the carrier.
The first 90 days after closing
The goal in the first three months is simple: nothing breaks, nothing renews by accident, and every account has an owner on your team.
Keep everything running
Cancel nothing on day one. Find out what each circuit and line feeds first. Old lines often run alarm panels, elevator phones and card readers that nobody put on a list.
Put the accounts in the right name
Update the account holder, billing contact and notice address on every account so renewal notices and outage alerts reach your team, not a former employee.
Line up the renewal dates
Put every contract end date and notice deadline on one calendar. Each renewal is a chance to combine, upgrade or move a site to the carrier you already use.
Check the safety lines and 911
Confirm the fire panel and elevator lines are still monitored after any change, and that the 911 address on every phone is right for where that phone actually sits.
Combining carriers is usually worth doing, but do it one renewal at a time instead of all at once. Our post on the 90-day renewal window covers how to work each one. Before you cancel an old line, read why your fire panel still needs a line, and check that 911 knows which building each phone is in.
How Buckeye helps
We've been an independent advisor since 2003 and we're in Sugar Grove, Ohio. We help businesses across the US, with one office or hundreds, choose phones, internet, data center, cloud and managed security, and we handle the switch. We carry no products and no delivery team. Contracts go in your name.
Talk: list what came with the deal
Every invoice, contract, circuit and phone number at the acquired company, with the end dates and notice deadlines in one place.
Compete: decide at each renewal
When a contract comes up, we get quotes across carriers for that site, so you can combine, upgrade or keep what works.
Stay: one owner after closing
We track the dates, handle the moves and changes, and chase the carrier when something is wrong.
Questions we get on the first call
Do the seller's telecom contracts transfer to us automatically?
Can we keep the acquired company's phone numbers?
Should we cancel the seller's carriers right away?
What if the seller has more time left on a contract than we want?
Do we still need our IT team or MSP?
What does Buckeye charge to help with an acquisition?
Related
Nobody owns it.
Why multi-location telecom falls apart after a few acquisitions.
Read → Cost controlThe 90-day renewal window.
Treat each inherited renewal as a decision, not a reminder.
Read → Cost controlGetting out of a contract early.
Your real options when an inherited contract has time left.
Read → Cost controlWhat a real telecom audit uncovers.
Unused circuits, aging hardware and contracts on autopilot.
Read → ComplianceYour fire panel still needs a line.
The copper lines to check before you cancel anything.
Read → CompensationHow we get paid, in plain English.
Carrier residual, disclosed. Same price as going direct.
Read →Thirty minutes. A list of what came with the deal.
No deck, no discovery engagement, no obligation. You deal with the principal from the first call.
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