I knew Broadcore was in play, just like many of the Cloud Communications Alliance members. Masergy has a strategy to be more than an MPLS reseller. Picking up Broadcore gives Masergy

"Demand for business-class cloud communications is growing at a rapid pace. Infonetics reported that revenue from hosted PBX and UC services grew by 33% last year and SIP trunking revenue grew by 128%. Further, the number of seats for hosted business VoIP and unified communications services are expected to more than double over the next four years," the Masergy press statement reported. (see more about the Hosted PBX Market here)

"Broadcore will continue to operate as it does today, but as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Masergy. The Broadcore service platform will be directly embedded into Masergy's global MPLS network platform, which was purpose-built to deliver real-time applications like Broadcore's voice, video and mobility offerings."

Masergy kind of has to add some services because the dumb pipe model - even MPLS - is falling apart. Transport only works when you have an exclusive route or the fastest route. Otherwise just transport is a commodity that is price shopped online - or through an agent.

This reminds me of Qwest buying US West in 2000. Qwest needed revenue and traffic to fill its pipes. Hence, buying the ILEC. Masergy had a similar problem: transport in need of some services. And most likely many MPLS customers are utilizing either SIP trunking or Hosted PBX. It might as well come on the same bill.

This won't be the last merger in 2012 - that's for certain.

Rumor has it that one ILEC isn't done acquiring and T-Mobile may be a target.