(16) SEGMENT REPORTING

The Company uses the management approach to determine the segment financial information that should be disaggregated and presented separately in the Company's notes to its consolidated financial statements. The management approach is based on the manner by which management has organized the segments within the Company for making operating decisions, allocating resources, and assessing performance.

As the Company has increased in scope and scale, it has developed its management and reporting structure to support this growth. The Company’s bandwidth infrastructure, colocation and connectivity offerings are comprised of various related product groups generally defined around the type of offering to which the customer is licensing access, referred to as SPGs. Each SPG is responsible for the revenue, costs and associated capital expenditures of its respective solutions. The SPGs enable licensing and sales, make pricing and product decisions, engineer networks and deliver solutions to customers, and support customers for specific telecom and Internet infrastructure requirements.

During fiscal 2018, with the continued increase in our scope and scale, the Company’s chief operating decision maker ("CODM"), who is the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, implemented certain organizational changes to the management and operation of the business that directly impact how the CODM makes resource allocation decisions and manages the Company. The changes in structure had the impact of creating two new SPGs and re-aligning an existing SPG among the Company’s reportable segments. The changes in structure also resulted in changes in how the Company measures the relative burden each segment bears of indirect and corporate related costs.

Effective April 1, 2018 the Company’s Ethernet SPG, previously reported under our Enterprise Networks segment, is now reported under the Company’s Transport segment. Additionally, certain activities and operations of the legacy Waves, WAN, and Ethernet SPGs were combined to form a new SPG, CloudLink. These changes to the existing reportable segments (the “Realignment”) have been recast for all prior period financial and operating metrics presented in this Annual Report for comparability, such as;

Certain activities and operations of the legacy Waves, WAN, and Ethernet SPGs, after giving effect to the Realignment, are now reported in a new SPG, CloudLink, under the Enterprise Networks segment; and

The wholesale IP services and Sonet SPGs, and the remaining activities and operations of the legacy Waves and Ethernet SPGs (the activities and operations not related to CloudLink), after giving effect to the Realignment, are now reported under the Transport segment.

In addition to the changes in structure, the Company also adjusted intercompany pricing methodologies to more closely align to third party pricing on the products and offerings which are exchanged between our SPGs. However, it was not practicable to retrospectively present the impact of this change for all historical periods presented.

The Company’s segments are further described below:

Fiber Solutions. The Fiber Solutions segment offers access to raw bandwidth infrastructure to customers that require control of their internal networks. These solutions include dark fiber, dedicated lit network sections and mobile infrastructure (fiber-to-the-tower and small cell). Dark fiber is a physically separate and secure, private platform for dedicated bandwidth. The Company leases dark fiber pairs (usually 2 to 12 total fibers) to customers, who “light” the fiber using their own optronics. The Company’s mobile infrastructure solutions permit direct fiber connections to cell towers, small cells, hub sites, and mobile switching centers. Fiber Solutions customers include carriers and other communication service providers, Internet service providers, wireless service providers, major media and content companies, large enterprises, and other companies that have the expertise to run their own fiber optic networks or require interconnected technical space. The contract terms in the Fiber Solutions segment tend to range from three to twenty years.

Transport. The Transport segment provides access to lit bandwidth infrastructure solutions over metro, regional, and long-haul fiber network sections. The segment uses customer-accessed optronics to light the fiber, and our customers pay for access based on the amount and type of bandwidth they require. The activities within this segment include Wavelengths, Ethernet, SONET, and wholesale IP offerings. The Company targets customers who require a minimum of 10G of bandwidth across their networks. Transport customers include carriers, content providers, financial services companies, healthcare, government entities, education institutions and other medium and large enterprises. The contract terms in this segment tend to range from two to five years.

Enterprise Networks. The Enterprise Networks segment provides connectivity and telecommunications solutions to medium and large enterprises. The activities within this segment include Internet, wide area networking products, managed products and cloud based computing and storage offerings. Solutions range from point-to-point data connections to multi-site managed networks to international outsourced IT infrastructure environments. The contract terms in the Enterprise Networks segment tend to range from one to ten years.

Zayo Colocation (“zColo”). The Colocation segment provides data center infrastructure solutions to a broad range of enterprise, carrier, cloud, and content customers. The activities within this segment include the provision of colocation space, power and interconnection offerings in North America and Western Europe. Solutions range in size from single cabinet solutions to 1MW+ data center infrastructure environments. The Company’s data centers also support a large component of networking components for the purpose of aggregating and accommodating customers’ data, voice, Internet, and video traffic. The contract terms in this segment tend to range from two to five years.

Allstream. The Allstream segment provides Cloud VoIP and Data Solutions. This includes a full range of local voice offerings allowing business customers to complete telephone calls in their local exchange, as well as make long distance, toll-free and related calls. Unified Communications is the integration of real-time communication services such as telephony (including Cloud-based IP telephony), instant messaging and video conferencing with non-real-time communication services, such as integrated voicemail and e-mail. Allstream also provides customers with comprehensive telecommunications services including Ethernet, and IP/MPLS VPN Solutions.

Other. The Other segment is primarily comprised of Zayo Professional Services (“ZPS”). ZPS provides network and technical resources to customers who wish to leverage the Company’s expertise in designing, acquiring and maintaining a network. The contract terms typically run for one year for a fixed recurring monthly fee in the case of network and on an hourly basis for technical resources (usage revenue). ZPS also generates revenue via telecommunication equipment sales.

The results of operations for each segment include an allocation of certain indirect costs and corporate related costs, including overhead and third party-financed debt. The allocation is based on a percentage that represents management’s estimate of the relative burden each segment bears of indirect and corporate costs. Management has evaluated the allocation methods utilized to allocate these costs and determined they are systematic, rational and consistently applied. Identifiable assets for each reportable segment are reconciled to total consolidated assets including unallocated corporate assets and intersegment eliminations. Unallocated corporate assets consist primarily of cash and deferred taxes.

In connection with the Company’s acquisition of Electric Lightwave the Company acquired certain customer contracts that included the bundled provision of VoIP and data connectivity services. This bundled package was historically managed and reported as revenue by the Enterprise Networks segment. Subsequent to June 30, 2018, operational changes were made which resulted in the management of these bundled contract to be provided by the Allstream segment and as such the revenue associated with these contracts will now be reported as revenue of the Allstream segment. The Enterprise Networks segment continues to own the infrastructure and equipment that supports these contracts and as such the segments entered into an intercompany agreement for the continued use of these assets which will result in the recognition of intercompany expense and revenue at the Allstream and Enterprise Networks segments, respectively. This intercompany charge will be eliminated in the consolidated revenue and Adjusted EBITDA amounts to be disclosed in the “corporate and eliminations column”. Starting with the quarter ending September 30, 2018, the Company will recast it’s prior period financial and operating metrics presented in previous filings to reflect the financial results of the Company’s segments as if these bundled contracts were managed by Allstream and the related intercompany agreement was in place effective with the March 1, 2017 acquisition of Electric Lightwave. The change will not have an impact on consolidated revenues or EBITDA.

Segment Adjusted EBITDA

Segment Adjusted EBITDA is the primary measure used by the Company’s CODM to evaluate segment operating performance.

The Company defines Segment Adjusted EBITDA as earnings/(loss) from operations before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) adjusted to exclude acquisition or disposal-related transaction costs, losses on extinguishment of debt, stock-based compensation, unrealized foreign currency gains/(losses) on intercompany loans, and non-cash income/(loss) on equity and cost method investments. The Company uses Segment Adjusted EBITDA to evaluate operating performance, and this financial measure is among the primary measures used by management for planning and forecasting of future periods. The Company believes that the presentation of Segment Adjusted EBITDA is relevant and useful for investors because it allows investors to view results in a manner similar to the method used by management and facilitates comparison of the Company’s results with the results of other companies that have different financing and capital structures.

Segment Adjusted EBITDA results, along with other quantitative and qualitative information, are also utilized by the Company and its Compensation Committee for purposes of determining bonus payouts to employees.

Segment Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, analysis of the Company’s results from operations and operating cash flows as reported under GAAP. For example, Segment Adjusted EBITDA:

does not reflect capital expenditures, or future requirements for capital and major maintenance expenditures or contractual commitments;

does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, working capital needs;

does not reflect the significant interest expense, or the cash requirements necessary to service the interest payments, on the Company’s debt; and

does not reflect cash required to pay income taxes.

The Company’s computation of Segment Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures computed by other companies because all companies do not calculate segment Adjusted EBITDA in the same fashion.


	For the year ended June 30, 2018
	Fiber Solutions		Transport		Enterprise Networks		zColo			Allstream		Other		Corp/ Eliminations		Total
	(in millions)
Revenue from external customers	$	842.0	$	670.4	$	350.4	$	238.2	$	479.9	$	23.1	$	—	$	2,604.0
Segment Adjusted EBITDA		673.2		230.3		148.2		120.3		114.0		5.0		—		1,291.0
Total assets		4,956.9		1,864.6		752.0		1,032.4		461.8		33.3		115.8		9,216.8
Capital expenditures		443.3		183.1		50.0		99.9		13.6		—		—		789.9


	For the year ended June 30, 2017
	Fiber Solutions		Transport		Enterprise Networks		zColo			Allstream		Other		Corp/ Eliminations		Total
	(in millions)
Revenue from external customers	$	725.4	$	614.3	$	310.2	$	214.0	$	314.3	$	21.6	$	—	$	2,199.8
Segment Adjusted EBITDA		570.4		223.0		127.9		107.1		83.3		5.1		—		1,116.8
Total assets		4,504.6		2,018.3		597.4		994.4		406.2		33.2		185.3		8,739.4
Capital expenditures		499.1		189.6		46.8		91.5		8.5		—		—		835.5


	For the year ended June 30, 2016
	Fiber Solutions		Transport		Enterprise Networks		zColo			Allstream		Other		Corp/ Eliminations		Total
	(in millions)
Revenue from external customers	$	648.8	$	522.6	$	228.4	$	195.4	$	106.2	$	20.3	$	—	$	1,721.7
Segment Adjusted EBITDA		504.0		208.4		100.6		99.5		17.9		4.5		—		934.9
Capital expenditures		421.4		160.6		50.5		66.3		5.3		—		—		704.1

As discussed above, it was not practicable to retrospectively present the impact of intercompany pricing changes for all historical periods presented. Management estimates the intercompany pricing changes had the following impacts to Segment Adjusted EBITDA during the three months ended June 30, 2018.


	For the three months ended June 30, 2018
	Fiber Solutions		Transport		Enterprise Networks		zColo			Allstream		Other		Corp/ Eliminations		Total
	(in millions)
Impact of pricing changes	$	—	$	(1.8)	$	2.7	$	0.1	$	(1.0)	$	—	$	—	$	—

Reconciliation from Total Segment Adjusted EBITDA to income/(loss) from operations before income taxes


	For the year ended June 30,
	2018		2017		2016

Total Segment Adjusted EBITDA	$	1,291.0	$	1,116.8	$	934.9
Interest expense		(299.8)		(241.5)		(220.1)
Depreciation and amortization		(747.4)		(606.9)		(516.3)
Transaction costs		(18.6)		(20.5)		(21.5)
Stock-based compensation		(96.7)		(114.1)		(155.9)
Loss on extinguishment of debt		(4.9)		(18.2)		(33.8)
Foreign currency gain/(loss) on intercompany loans		5.4		(10.3)		(53.8)
Non-cash loss on investments		(1.0)		(1.2)		(1.2)
Income/(loss) from operations before income taxes	$	128.0	$	104.1	$	(67.7)

The following is a summary of geographical information:


	For the year ended June 30,
	2018		2017		2016
Revenue from external customers:
United States	$	2,017.4	$	1,610.0	$	1,334.1
Europe		199.4		176.5		174.1
Canada		384.2		412.0		213.3
Other		3.0		1.3		0.2
Total Revenue	$	2,604.0	$	2,199.8	$	1,721.7
Long-lived assets:
United States	$	5,929.5	$	5,504.7	$	4,236.1
Europe		537.2		521.3		527.8
Canada		381.7		335.8		326.4
Other		18.5		22.8		25.6
Total Long-lived assets	$	6,866.9	$	6,384.6	$	5,115.9

The Company includes all non-current assets, except for goodwill and assets of discontinued operations or assets held for sale, in its long-lived assets.