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Saturday, February 15, 2025

Bandwidth terminates $32M jobs agreement with state

Raleigh-based Bandwidth and state officials have terminated an agreement to add 1,100 local jobs to the communications company in return for $32 million in state grant money.

The company recently built a new headquarters near the PNC Arena, and that 40-acre complex opened last year, complete with soccer fields, a cafeteria, a preschool and basketball courts. When it opened in August, the company had about 750 employees.

In 2020, the state’s economic developers offered $32.3 million over 12 years as part of the expansion. But the jobs growth hasn’t materialized. Bandwidth had not received any payments from the state and had only added 87 jobs.

“We believe that the company’s withdrawal from the grant will give us greater flexibility to drive thoughtful workplace planning along with our North Carolina growth strategy,” said Daryl Raiford, the company’s chief financial officer, in a letter to the N.C. Department of Commerce

Raiford said that the employee base in North Carolina has grown “despite a choppy macroeconomic environment.”

Company spokesman David Doolittle said that the new headquarters “resulted in investment that is significantly more than the capital investment requirement specified in the grant.”

A number of companies have recently backed out of North Carolina’s economic incentive offerings, reported Axios. The COVID-19 pandemic also forced many companies to allow remote work.

The company operates as a communications services business. It offers phone number solutions, messaging, voice, 911, SIP trunking, data resale, and over-the-top voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) services.

Bandwidth went public in 2017. In its fiscal third quarter, the company reported a loss of $5.1 million on revenue of $152 million.

The company’s stock price closed Tuesday at $14.85, up 51 cents. The stock was above $180 a share back in February 2021.

Chris Roush
Chris Roush
Chris Roush is executive editor of Business North Carolina. He can be reached at croush@businessnc.com.

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