Motive Continues Expansion with AWS Buy

By J. Sharpe Smith, Senior Editor

November 11, 2020

Corona, California-based Motive, a provider of infrastructure, telecom and energy services, has acquired AWS Communications, which has locations in Austin and Dallas, Texas; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Tampa, Florida. The acquisition gives Motive locations from coast to coast.

“We want to be a national service provider,” Bob Istwan, Motive’s CEO, told AGL eDigest. “There are projects that come up where we compete with national companies, such as MasTec and Black & Veatch, and we get painted as a regional. The larger we get, the more we are perceived as a nationwide company.”

As a company, Motive resulted from a merger of Motive Energy Telecommunications with Cable Engineering Services (CES) in 2017, combining A&E, design and project management construction, installation and maintenance services into a full service, self-performing, turnkey wireless and wireline solutions provider. Motive has performed 12 acquisitions in the last five years, and it remains on the prowl for additional hookups.

“We are looking at several more acquisitions. Without a doubt, we will be a national services company in the next 12 months,” Istwan said.

Size counts in the uber-competitive comm-infra industry, where margins are tight. The recent spate of mergers will be good for the services industry, according to Istwan. Larger, well-capitalized comm-infra services firms are necessary for a healthy industry, he said.

“Wireless companies want to pay you later every year. They stretch you. The little guys get squeezed,” Istwan said. “The consolidations have been good for us. We are the only self-performing, turnkey solution telecom services provider. If you are not our size, its rough. At are our size, we are in a good spot. Fewer, larger comm-infra services companies may allow the industry to charge more.”

AWS Communications, founded in Austin, Texas, in 2002, offers OSP and ISP communication infrastructure design, project management and construction for a suite of communications infrastructure services – cellular DAS, public safety DAS, small cell, C-RAN, RF services, fiber and copper communication cabling for data, voice, video, and wireless solutions, network engineering, electrical services, and fiber network installation.

“AWS is a good fit for what we do,” Istwan said. “AWS does a lot of DAS work, which we used to do, so it will be a nice bolt-on. They also do a lot of underground work, which we have grown into in the last year. So both those areas complement us.”

AWS has worked with Motive on numerous as a subcontractor for large services companies, such B&V, Ericsson and Bechtel, while Motive was doing business directly with the carriers.

“AWS will gain from our services, our footprint, our customer base, our relationships and contracts, on top of what they do as subcontractors,” Istwan said. “With us, they will have the potential to do business directly with the carrier.”