Veracity Communications opted out of a merger with new iProvo owner Broadweave Networks mainly because the deal didn't close as scheduled on Monday, Veracity CEO Drew Peterson said.

Broadweave on Wednesday said it dropped plans to buy the operations and customer base of Veracity but will continue to work with the Provo company under a new working arrangement. Broadweave still has 10,500 residential customers from Mstar Metro and Nuvont Communications, two other former iProvo service providers on the iProvo network.

Peterson said Veracity "exercised its right to terminate the merger" on Monday after the iProvo sale was extended for another 60 days. The deadline was extended because the city and at least half a dozen companies involved needed more time to complete their due diligence on the iProvo sale.

Peterson also cited "difficulties in merging the two companies' systems and cultures."

"It's more to do with focusing on how well our company has done over the past two, three months, rather than focus on the integration and the challenges of making the merger a smooth transition," he said.

"We could have extended the terms of our contract if we had wanted, but we didn't because our last quarter was one of the best quarters we've had from an operational and revenue standpoint and we want to continue with our success," Peterson said.

"Veracity and Broadweave Networks still have a great working relationship and are working through the details of our new working relationship now," Peterson said. "At this point in time, it's better for us to continue as Veracity."

Veracity, which has a total of 3,000 business customers including 350 on iProvo, will continue to provide phone and data services to those customers. Veracity also has between 150 and 200 business customers on UTOPIA, another municipally-owned fiber-optics network that is backed with sales tax revenue pledges of 11 cities in Utah including Orem, Lindon and Payson.