Wall Street Journal

Consolidated Communications to Be Bought For $3.1 Billion, Including Debt

Consolidated Communications has agreed to be bought for $3.1 billion, including debt, in a take-private deal that will remove the fiber company from the public markets as it grapples with higher interest rates and rising costs. Searchlight Capital Partners, a private-equity firm that already owns more than 34 percent of Consolidated Communications, and British Columbia Investment Management agreed to pay $4.70 a share for the company. The company has faced various challenges as it works to build up its next-generation fiber network.

After More Than Four Years, Has 5G Lived Up to Expectations?

Fifth-generation wireless networks have spread faster and farther than some early advocates predicted, but the technology—despite hundreds of billions of dollars invested worldwide—hasn’t revolutionized whole swaths of the economy the way past mobile technologies did. In the US, about 43% of people had 5G mobile subscriptions as of June, ranking 10th worldwide. Hong Kong had the world’s highest 5G penetration rate, with 74% of its population subscribed to the mobile service.