Fiber firm Cogent Communications has completed its program to convert legacy switch sites into data centers, but the first proposed deal to sell some of those facilities has fallen through.

The last couple of years have seen Cogent converting legacy technical buildings and switch sites previously used for Sprint’s wireline business into colocation data centers. The company has been looking to sell a number of those facilities on a wholesale basis.

In October, Cogent entered into a letter of intent to sell two data centers it acquired and repurposed in connection with its Sprint acquisition for $144 million in cash. Details on which two facilities were set to be sold weren’t shared, but Cogent CEO Dave Schaeffer had said it was two of the largest of 24 wholesale facilities Cogent had repurposed.

During its Q4 2025 earnings results this month, the company announced, however, that the deal had fallen through. During the analyst call, Schaeffer said the deal wasn’t finalized “due to a change in the original terms.”

The intended buyer reportedly wanted Cogent to provide a portion of the purchase price via owner financing - where the property seller finances the purchase directly - which the company “found unacceptable,” so it is instead looking to other potential buyers.

“The counterpart came back to us and looked for us to provide more than 50 percent of the agreed-to purchase price in owner financing,” Schaeffer said. “We felt that we would be better served with an all-cash purchase rather than one that had us taking more than 50 percent of the purchase price in the form of a secured note against the assets.”

Schaffer told analysts that the buyer had “assured” Cogent that it had proof of funds and the wherewithal to pay all cash, but was “trying to magnify their returns" through owner financing.

“Since we had a number of other interested parties who had submitted backup offers on those two facilities as well as a broader set of facilities, we decided to terminate that agreement at our choice and then re-engage with some of those parties.”

Schaeffer said Cogent is in active discussions with multiple parties for multiple offers across a broad set of these data centers: “We do expect several of these to result in multi-site acquisition offers. We are far along in those negotiations and hope to be able to announce something soon.”

T-Mobile sold its wireline business to Cogent for just $1 in September 2022. Much of what was sold was Sprint‘s legacy US long-haul fiber network, which T-Mobile had acquired as part of its $26 billion merger with Sprint in 2020.

Cogent’s acquisition included hundreds of technical buildings and switch sites previously used for Sprint’s wireline business, which the firm set about converting into colocation sites.

The company now has 187 Cogent data centers and Edge data centers totaling 2.1+ million square feet, 40,984 racks, and 213MW. The portfolio includes 100 data centers and 87 Edge facilities. Across Q4 2025, the company added one Edge facility to the portfolio, completing its conversion program.

“We have converted all of the intended Sprint switch sites that we intend to convert into data centers,” Schaffer said during the analyst call.

Cogent’s total revenue for the quarter was $240.5m and $975.8m for the year. EBITDA increased sequentially by $3m to $51.7m for the quarter.

DCD has previously spoken with Cogent CEO Dave Schaeffer to discuss the company’s repurposing of legacy Sprint switch sites. Read it here.