You'd like to think that a company planning to buy city assets would have all of their paperwork ducks in a row. Seems that Broadweave, however, has neglected to file a substantial amount of paperwork required to legally do business. South Jordan, the location of the company's headquarters, has no listings for Broadweave. Draper has never heard of them before. The woman I spoke to with Washington City said they've been trying to get them to get a valid business license for a long time and will probably refer them to enforcement soon. Lehi hasn't gotten back to me yet on their license status in that city, but given the 0 for 3 record in other cities where they do business, I don't have my hopes up that they filed anything there either.
And what of Provo? Broadweave has also failed to obtain a business license from the city of Provo. They also have not registered Broadweave of Provo, LLC with the state of Utah, the business entity that was supposed to be buying the network. How can the city sign a deal with a business entity that doesn't even exist? It's not like Broadweave doesn't know how to do it; they have registrations for subsidiaries in St. George, Hurricane, Washington, Herriman and "Rosecrest".
I'm also trying to find out if Broadweave is telling the truth about how long they have been an established business. They did not register their current domain, broadweave.com, until June of 2003 though their website indicates that this company has been around since 1999. Seems odd for a tech company to go 4 years without snapping up the domain that bears their trademark, isn't it? Pending some feedback from the Utah Department of Commerce, we'll know for sure. I'm betting the company wasn't filed until 2003 making their claim of getting their first contract in 1999 patently false.
UPDATE: Lehi just confirmed that they don't have a business license in their city either. Surprise, surprise.
“There have been offers,” Billings said, “and after due diligence, we determined we are not at that point.”
What does Provo consider due diligence?
You sound like a cyberstalker. Get a life.
Jesse,
I’m frustrated too. Why couldn’t the city and service providers make it work? I wish it would have, but I don’t want to pay more in taxes, power or some other city service the tax payers (me) are going to be stuck with on a chance it will in the future.
Now the city is making the right choice and selling the system to a ‘local’ company backed by ‘local’ money and not a Verizon or some other out of state behemoth.
Now, you need to lay off the personal attacks on this Broadweave company. What did they do to you? Let them sink or swim. If they sink, Provo gets the network back and maybe they’ll have figured it out the open model by then. If they swim then that means they have enough happy customers to pay the bills and hopefully prove they can accomplish what the city could not.
You know it’s going to pass the city counsel when they vote. If you were them would vote for another 2-3 million loss this year on a city owned business that more people in Provo are against keeping than for it?
you save 2-3million this year and 2-3million next year, but what about the year after that and the year after that, if iprovo fails under broadweave and the network is returned it is not likely that iprovo would be able to cover operation costs let alone bond debt, It would also place the network in a position of having to rewin over 3 times scorned customers. with 40million in bond debt we need to look past this year and next year and keep an eye to the greater picture.
Broadweave is getting a sweetheart deal, if Provo wants to sell the network they need put up a proper RFP saying that is their intention.
Their is nothing wrong with a national company being a potential suiter, atleast with someone like Verizon you would be sure they can keep paying the bills.
Jack: If they want to sell it, let them sell it and I’d be merely disappointed. In this case, however, they are selling to the wrong company. Broadweave might be local, but that doesn’t matter two hoots if they’re shady as all get out. The CEO gets his only contract from his father, fails to get any business licenses and doesn’t create the corporate entity to which the network will be sold and that seems okay?
We should all be terrified that this deal is even being considered, especially since an open RFP asking for purchase offers would solicit significantly better offers, both in terms of purchase price and company quality.
Jesse – not to mention the shady manner in which iProvo officials have handled the selection process. I know of at least one other legitimate response to the RFP that was a much better deal than the Broadweave offer, but iProvo turned it down. The primary reason iProvo gave is that they felt the proposed plan would compromise their ideals of “open access.” There will be more on this one that will surface in the next few weeks…
Jack, I’m having a hard time seeing how Jesse stating the facts about the company is a personal attack on Steve Christensen or any of the other principals. Could you elaborate?
First, Traverse is not their only deal. It was their first, but there are a lot of companies that got their starts from family. Broadweave has gone on to not only stay in business (which blows your “no business acumen” argument, but win other deals. They signed a deal with SITLA for a community in southern Utah, and now a deal with the City of Provo.
I would be worried if two months from now they hadn’t registered the LLC in Provo, but they aren’t operating there now, so it’s not a big deal. This thing was just announced, and it takes time to register with the state.
Yes, Broadweave has to answer for the other concerns, but my biggest concern is that they really are able to operate iProvo. I’m willing to give them a shot and wish them the best.
I wonder how Utopia will fare. With the recent announcements on that front, they now have about two years to deliver. If they can’t, they will be in the same boat. I wonder what you think they should do if nothing really changes (slow customer acquisition, slow build out, financial strains on retail providers and the municipalities etc)
squash: Given that Broadweave currently has no video customers across the vast majority of their users (and some close to the deal report that number as zero) and they can’t get their business license ducks in a row, I don’t think they should be given a shot. Find a competent provider with real backing like Paxio or Axia to make a bid for the network.
If UTOPIA doesn’t shape up during the next two years, it means it’s time to find someone willing to buy it, but someone that has proven competency. That’s a pretty big if, though. PacketFront and Todd Marriott have staked their careers on the success of UTOPIA and plenty of proponents, both within and without, have staked their personal reputations on it. With that much personal motivation and Mr. Marriott’s experience, I think we can expect a big turnaround.
I think the sale is a mistake but I do not have any of the information.
But what Provo is doing to take an offer and run. Not giving people enough time to really think on it stinks.
Ok you want to sell the network. Great. Then get the best deal possible. For your city. Why settle for a few proposals from places that decided to take a real broad view of the RFP. Post a real RFP asking for buyers. Then you can work to get the best deal.
Why settle for a few offers when you could get more offers and quite possibly better offers.
The fact that the city did not do this either tells me they just want to sweep the problem under the table (short term fix), there is some deal w/ Broadweave that isn’t in the best interest of the city, or there is something else wrong w/ iProvo and they are rushing to get it “sold” before whatever is going on is found out.
Any other thoughts on the reasons of the rush? It just doesn’t make sense to me to do it this fast instead of create a true RFP, and getting more offers so the city gets the best deal possible.
Provo’s motivation in rushing the sale is political. The mayor with this sale has stalled both the state audit of iProvo’s revenue and the political drubbing he was beginning to get with the city council’s creation of the iProvo review committee. He sprang the deal on the council members at the same time as the public. Now the game is to get it approved as quick as possible. As soon as the network is in private hands the opposition will stop beating him over the head with it.
If this was about business we would see some interest in better offers. But it’s about political gains and political timing.
Interesting.
While I would love to have a fiber connection in my home to get a better connection and pay less for more. Kinda glad I do not live in Provo.
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Not a surprise. A Vikings Feast Claims to be a DBA that does catering for Provo city.
A Vikings Feast has an expired registration with the state. Their registration expired in 2004 and the were a DBA of Kjells Vikings Feast that was registered one day after Kjell Karlsson took out bankruptcy on the original company of Vikings Feast Catering.
Provo city rep told me that they were too busy to check business registrations.
Provo city needs to make the 3 seconds of time that it takes to do a web search.
Funny these are people who are servicing Provo City