Fusion Telecommunications International Inc will buy the cloud and business services unit of Birch Communications in a deal that creates a combined company worth about $950 million, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.

The agreement, expected to be announced later on Monday, will create one of the largest North American cloud services providers, with more than 150,000 business customers, 30 data centers and 31,000 miles of fiber network, the sources said.

Fusion has agreed to buy privately held Birch’s cloud and business services unit, which represents most of its revenue, but not Birch’s legacy consumer business that is less profitable and has higher customer churn rates, the sources said.

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