The future of broadband mergers and acquisitions

You can’t go far in the broadband industry without hearing about some internet service provider getting acquired or an investment from a private equity company. Brightspeed, Consolidated Communications and Wire 3 are a few recent examples. Ropes & Gray, a law firm that’s advised private equity firms in investments in fiber companies, estimates digital infrastructure mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity will pick up in the next year and will likely grow even further with the increased need for applications like generative AI (GenAI). The digital infrastructure space isn’t immune to the macroeconomic factors that are impacting the broader M&A market, Ropes & Gray attorney Taylor Hart pointed out, such as interest rates and geopolitical issues. But he thinks digital infrastructure “is much more insulated” in that there’s lots of interest and growth.