Linden Evans on merger and acquisition
From Black Hills Corp CEO Says Wyoming Presence Give it Edge in AI Data Expansion · · New York Stock Exchange
“It's a great opportunity for us. We've been talking to Northwestern for the last couple of decades. We see it as very positive. We serve eight different states of the Midwest. They happen to serve three states where we overlap in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Montana. So, it's very complementary. We already serve those states as well. We're both companies that are based in South Dakota, so combining two South Dakota-based companies makes sense. We have very similar cultures, as an example. Being able to grow, from our perspective, from 1.35 million customers that we serve to 2.1 is going to provide us business diversity in terms of the customers that we serve. And by combining the two companies together, we'll have a combined balance sheet that helps us address the growing energy need that we just talked about. It also helps us with having a more strengthened and confident, if you will, cash flow support that balance sheet.”
On , Linden Evans, President, Chief Executive Officer & Director at BLACK HILLS CORP, spoke about merger and acquisition during Black Hills Corp CEO Says Wyoming Presence Give it Edge in AI Data Expansion on New York Stock Exchange.
About Linden Evans
Linn Evans, president and CEO of Black Hills Corporation, has discussed the company's growth strategy and its focus on serving data center customers. In a December 2025 interview at the EEI financial conference, Evans stated that Black Hills has a "very unique tariff" in Wyoming that provides flexibility in serving data centers rapidly and efficiently. He noted that the company has been serving Microsoft as a data center customer for more than 10 years and announced it will also serve Meta. Evans described a $4.7 billion capital investment plan over five years, including a 260-mile transmission line in Wyoming called "Ready Wyoming" and a 99-megawatt generation project in Rapid City, South Dakota. He also discussed a pending merger with Northwestern Energy, saying it would create a "combined balance sheet" to address growing energy demand. Evans has emphasized the company's financial history, stating that Black Hills has issued a dividend for 83 consecutive years and increased it for 55 consecutive years. He has also highlighted the company's reliability record, saying two of its electric utilities are in the top quartile for reliability and one is ranked number two in the nation. In earlier appearances, Evans discussed the company's commitment to community support, including a $375,000 corporate commitment for COVID-19 relief efforts across eight states in 2020, and a policy of not disconnecting customers for non-payment during the pandemic. He has also spoken about the importance of early childhood education and the company's support for enhancing child care in South Dakota.