ELN Buys NEN

EarthLink buys New Edge for $144M. NEN's 2005 revenue is expected to be $120M (that's revenue not income). ELN is leaving the NEN name, staff and Dan Moffatt in place. Makes me wonder why. Neither company can successfully run a network. ELN outsources all network (until they do wi-fi in Philly) and NEN's Big Foot network has been problematic at best. ELN does bring marketing expertise, but you need cash to advertise. And ELN is shelling out money for wi-fi projects in Philly and California, while losing dial-up customers by the droves. How does the NEN merger effect ELN's deal with Covad for line-powered VoIP? How about it's deal as Sprint's ISP?