Ownership

After more than a year of waiting, Brightspeed finally closed on a $7.5 billion deal to acquire Lumen Technologies’ telecommunications assets in 20 states via its parent company Apollo Global Management.

The House of representatives approved antitrust legislation targeting the dominance of Big Tech companies by giving states greater power in competition cases and increasing money for federal regulators. The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act passed by a 242-184 vote. It was separated from more ambitious provisions aimed at reining in Meta, Google, Amazon, and Apple and cleared by key House and Senate committees. Those proposals have languished for months, giving the companies time for vigorous lobbying campaigns against them.

Across the world, a growing number of community networks, municipal networks, and social enterprises are successfully connecting those who have historically been unserved or underserved by traditional internet service providers. This report analyzes the operating models and financing mechanisms that can support the success of these community connectivity providers (CCPs). It is designed to help those who build and fund broadband infrastructure to identify and support sustainable solutions that can expand connectivity and accelerate digital equity. The report explores:

Underline, the nation’s intelligent community infrastructure platform, is connecting American communities on a foundation of open access fiber. To support existing projects and drive continued US expansion, a fund managed by Ares Management’s Infrastructure Opportunities strategy joins Underline as a strategic investor—adding a scaled global investment manager to the existing investor group. Underline is the first digital infrastructure investment Ares will make through its Infrastructure Opportunities strategy—a leading infrastructure investor with approximately $4.3 billion in assets unde

Google lost most of its appeal to overturn the largest antitrust fine it has so far faced globally, a boost to the European Union’s campaign to rein in alleged anticompetitive conduct by big tech companies.

Lumen Technologies completed one major business divestiture last month and are close to wrapping another. Company CFO and EVP Chris Stansbury said the pair of deals will help the company allocate resources to other products at a time when Lumen is starting to see big growth opportunities. “The company is going to get smaller before it gets bigger again,” Stansbury said.

Competitive fiber network operator Cogent Communications reached a definitive agreement to buy T-Mobile’s wireline business.

Commnet Broadband plans to acquire Sacred Wind Enterprises, a move that would unite two broadband providers focused on serving tribal areas. Commnet Broadband, a subsidiary of ATN International, traditionally has focused on the wholesale market in tribal and other rural areas, but more recently has begun expanding its network to serve consumers and businesses directly. Sacred Wind, founded in 2006, provides fixed wireless and fiber broadband to the Navajo Nation and neighboring areas of New Mexico.

Eutelsat Communications SA and OneWeb Ltd. are set to combine in an all-share deal valuing the UK satellite operator at $3.4 billion, a step toward creating a European champion to rival the likes of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. OneWeb shareholders will hold 50% of Eutelsat, which will continue to be listed in Paris and will ask to be listed on the London Stock Exchange.  Both the UK and French governments have stakes in OneWeb and Eutelsat respectively, and the UK will continue to own a special share, giving it certain veto rights over strategic decisions such as the location of the firm’s headquart

I’ve been asked three or four times in the last few weeks why anybody would invest in building rural broadband networks with the goal of getting rich. I’ve been hearing the same rumors as everybody else that there are private equity investors ready to jump into the rural grant arena. I have no specific knowledge that this is going to occur, but I’ve run across several internet service providers (ISPs) recently who claim to have access to nearly unlimited equity funding.