Private equity investor Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners announced on Sunday that it has agreed to buy Astound Broadband, the sixth largest U.S. cable operator in the United States and owner of regional providers RCN, Grande, Wave and enTouch. Stonepeak will acquire the company from TPG Capital and Patriot Media Management for $8.1 billion.
Stonepeak will partner with Astound’s current manager, Patriot Media, in managing the company going forward.
Astound is a broadband provider offering internet, entertainment, communications, connectivity and fiber infrastructure solutions for residential customers and businesses of all sizes. The company’s high-speed communications infrastructure networks offer gigabit speeds serving eight of the top ten largest metro areas throughout the United States.
Fiber, fiber, fiber
RCN, Grande, Wave and enTouch serve over one million customers with 23,000 miles of fiber across Chicago, Eastern Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York City, Northern California, Oregon, Texas, Washington, DC., and Washington.
“We are delighted to partner with Steve, Jim and the Astound team for the next chapter of growth. Astound is the premier operator of critical broadband infrastructure in the United States with a long history of delivering market leading customer service and network performance to communities across the country. In our increasingly connected society, we believe there is an extraordinary opportunity to deliver faster speeds and greater coverage, fundamentally enabling many aspects of everyday life,” said Stonepeak Partner Brian McMullen, in a statement on the acquisition.
Astound company is at the forefront of the residential and business connectivity transformation, providing customers across the country with access to great high-speed broadband along with other innovative TV and phone services. As part of the partnership with Stonepeak, Patriot Media will continue to invest significantly in the network and in technology, enabling the company to expand and grow its fiber rich infrastructure, deliver gigabit per second high-speed data services and create the premier internet experience in their markets.
“We have created a market leading broadband platform with national reach, broad capabilities and expertise, and exciting growth potential,” said Jim Holanda, Astound CEO. “We are very eager and excited to partner with a premier investor such as Stonepeak to further accelerate our growth and take our companies to new levels of customer satisfaction and performance. We also want to thank TPG for their great support and partnership over the past four years.”
Growing value of broadband infrastructure
“We’ve had a long-held theme and belief in the growing value of broadband infrastructure, culminating in our successful investment in Astound Broadband, in partnership with Patriot Media,” said TPG Partner David Trujillo. “We’re proud to have been part of the company’s journey, which has been characterized by significant platform expansion, strong growth and great leadership. We wish Steve, Jim and the outstanding Patriot management team well, as they continue to grow Astound in partnership with Stonepeak.”
Stonepeak’s investment in Astound reflects its strategy of partnering with leading management to support market leaders within digital infrastructure to enable growth oftentimes through incremental capital investment. Stonepeak has been an early and active investor in digital infrastructure, with multiple investments across the data center, fiber and wireless space.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
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