MCNC has a pretty big telecommunications network spanning all of North Carolina. But its balance sheet is pretty big, too.
The non-profit organization’s total assets were valued at $215.2 million as of Oct. 31. For comparison, in the first quarter of 2009, MCNC’s total assets were just $62.4 million. The growth comes from federal broadband money as well as investments that MCNC has made over the years.
“It’s taken a small company into a relatively large operation,” said CFO Patricia Moody.
Moody gave an overview of MCNC’s financials during the the NCREN Community Day, the annual event recognizing the contributors and beneficiaries of the North Carolina Research and Education Network, which MCNC oversees.
The growth is largely due to the funding that MCNC received from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, or BTOP. The $144 million Golden LEAF Rural Broadband Initiative was a three-year network expansion that received more than than $100 million in BTOP grant funds. That expansion, which covered more than 2,600 linear miles miles of cable across the state and extended the network to 500 endpoints statewide, was completed this summer.
MCNC also has an investment portfolio, which has grown from $42.4 million in 2009 to $60.1 million as of Oct 31. Moody said the investment income is used to defray MCNC’s costs.
The big numbers don’t mean that MCNC is a big, profitable entity, CEO Joe Freddoso said. Telecommunications infrastructure is expensive and it wears out over time. So while MCNC looks big on paper, the financial numbers reflect the additional funds MCNC needs to keep on hand to pay for upgrades and replacements as parts of the network age. MCNC is still a non-profit and year to year, it basically breaks even, Freddoso said.
