Windstream-EarthLink merger and sale (2017-2018)
Windstream Holdings merged with EarthLink Holdings in February 2017, then sold the combined consumer business to Trive Capital for $320.9 million in cash on December 31, 2018. The business still sold DSL, premium email, web hosting and security products to more than 600,000 customers.
Trive brought in Glenn Goad as EarthLink's chief executive and began shifting the company from legacy DSL to fiber and 5G resale.
The transformation created the asset-light platform that Trive sold in October 2026.
EarthLink has now changed hands twice in eight years, each time at a different stage of the same shift from owned dial-up and DSL networks to resold fiber and 5G capacity.
