HickoryTech seeks shareholder approval to change name to Enventis

HickoryTech is ready to take on a new identity and it has asked its shareholders to approve its request to change its corporate name to Enventis Corp.

Changing the corporate name would be the last step in the century-old telco's move to a unified brand following its change to Enventis last October, when it rebranded its telecom markets in southern Minnesota and northwest Iowa.

If shareholders vote to change the name during the annual shareholder meeting on May 6, the company's stock would start trading under the ENVE ticker symbol on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Its name change reflects the service provider's ongoing movement from being just another small town voice-centric telco to become a broadband and business-centric service provider.

"Aligning our corporate name with Enventis, the brand used to serve thousands of customers across the upper Midwest, allows us to gain full recognition as a public company and as a leading business and broadband service provider," said John Finke, president and CEO of HickoryTech Corp. "Along with our brand, the company has transformed from a local telephone company into a leading, regional communications provider focused on growing and expanding our business and broadband services."

Business service growth is clearly a big driver of the name change. Over the past seven years, HickoryTech has been growing this sector via a mix of its organic network buildout initiatives and acquiring a number of regional providers, including Enventis in 2006. Later, the service provider acquired CP Telecom and Fargo, N.D.-based IdeaOne in 2012.

The telco is hardly alone in making such a move. Similar transitions have occurred at TDS Telecom, which renamed its Hosted Solutions division One Neck, while New York-based Warwick Valley Telephone renamed itself Alteva Communications.

For more:
- see the release

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