Private equity

Antin Infrastructure Partners has completed its acquisitions of Empire Access and North Penn Telephone, giving birth to a new fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) player serving Western New York and Northern Pennsylvania. Empire’s network consists of 1,280 fiber route miles servicing over 96,000 addresses and 29,000 customers in Western New York and Northern Pennsylvania. Antin plans to expand its high-speed fiber broadband footprint across the region.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau granted nine 900 MHz broadband segment license applications to PDV Spectrum Holding Company in Missouri and Kansas. On May 13, 2020, the Commission realigned the 900 MHz band to make available six megahertz of low-band spectrum for the development of critical wireless broadband technologies and services, while reserving the remaining four megahertz of spectrum for continued narrowband operations.

Northleaf Capital Partners acquired a controlling interest in Mercury Broadband and will invest up to $230 million over the next several years to support the provider’s expansion plans. Mercury Broadband, also known as Mercury Wireless, won Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) money to cover some of the costs of deploying a combination of fixed wireless and fiber broadband to unserved and underserved rural areas of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska. Northleaf, a “global private markets investment firm,” raised $21 billion in private equity, private cre

Cable One stuck invested $50 million to acquire a minority stake in northwestern US operator Ziply Fiber, part of the $450 million new funding Ziply received. WaveDivision Capital and Searchlight Capital Partners were among the other investors who contributed. Cable One handed Ziply an initial $22.2 million in November 2022 and expects to dole out the remaining $27.8 million before the end of September 2023. The investment netted Cable One less than a 10% equity interest in Ziply. The move is Cable One’s latest in the fiber realm.

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.

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

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.

Industry lawyers and consultants predict the recently enacted $1 trillion infrastructure measure is likely to create more investment opportunities for private-equity firms in areas they already favor, such as telecommunications, while doing little to expand their presence in the government-dominated transportation sec

Consolidated Communications, an US broadband and business communications provider headquartered in Mattoon (IL), secured a key approval for a multi-million investment deal it struck with private equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners, as the Federal Communications Commission signed off on the transaction, conditioned on terms laid out in a Letter of Agreement Consolidated signed with the Department of Justice. Under these terms, Consolidated must designate a US law enforcement contact who will have access

As Frontier Communications moves closer to an expected bankruptcy filing, the Internet service provider told investors that its troubles stem largely from its failure to invest properly in upgrading DSL to fiber broadband.