Officials from Bend-based telecommunications firm United Communications Inc., also known as UNICOM, said Tuesday that they had not heard from Portland-based Integra Telecom, who could become UNICOM’s parent company by September.

Integra announced Tuesday that it is acquiring Minneapolis-based Eschelon Telecom Inc., which announced last month that it is acquiring UNICOM. The Integra-Eschelon deal, valued at $566 million, is expected to close in September, officials said.

”It’s all new news to us,” said Molly Renner, director of marketing at UNICOM, adding that she is unaware of any of her company’s staff being contacted by Integra. She added that UNICOM’s deal to be acquired by Eschelon will continue to proceed.

”Right now, we’ve really just been talking to Eschelon,” Renner said. ”They’re the company that’s purchasing us.”

John Nee, vice president of marketing at Integra, said UNICOM is included in the purchase of Eschelon, although the inclusion of the Central Oregon company wasn’t key to the deal.

”As parallel companies, we were looking to grow through acquisition, and Eschelon applied the same logic (when purchasing UNICOM),” Nee said. ”That said, we’re eager to bring our brand of customer service throughout UNICOM’s service area.”

Nee said Integra has not decided whether there will be any staff reductions at Eschelon or UNICOM but added that his company’s philosophy involves keeping employees in markets they serve.

”Our business model is decentralized,” Nee said. ”We tend to put more workers at local markets than a centralized model would. But exactly what that will mean in terms of numbers is too early to tell.”

UNICOM employs about 50 people in Bend, with a significant piece of its customer base in Central Oregon, Renner said.

”(A decentralized model) is good news for us,” she said. ”From our standpoint, we’re looking forward to gathering more information, but Integra is a well-known company, and our customers will have not only the resources and products of Eschelon, but Integra as well.”

Eschelon officials were unavailable for comment.

The Minnesota-based company announced on Feb. 21 that it was buying UNICOM for $13.9 million. That deal is expected to close before June 30.

UNICOM provides Internet and phone services to more than 18,000 customers in the Pacific Northwest.