Privately held Wow Internet, Cable & Phone to buy cable provider Knology for …
Article from Washington Post:
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Wow Internet, Cable & Phone is buying cable TV and Internet provider Knology Inc. for $ 750.5 million, partly to broaden its geographic reach.
Knology shares gained $ 1.27, or 7 percent, to $ 19.32 in morning trading.
Wow, which is owned by private equity firm Avista Capital Partners, offers cable TV, Internet and telephone services in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana. Knology serves the Southeastern and Midwest U.S.
In February Knology shares spiked after a report said the company was shopping itself to potential buyers.
Wow and Knology are a “natural fit,” said Wow CEO Colleen Abdoulah said in a statement. She said that the two companies’ networks and infrastructure will aid growth.
The combined company would have more than 800,000 customers.
Wow is paying $ 19.75 per share, a 9 percent premium to Knology’s Tuesday closing price of $ 18.05. West Point, Ga.-based Knology has about 38 million outstanding shares, according to FactSet, and about $ 752 million in debt at the end of 2011. The companies value the total deal at approximately $ 1.5 billion.
Knology’s board unanimously approved the bu…………………continues on Washington Post
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Related News:
At Verizon, DSL slows but FiOS Internet booms
Article from GigaOM:
Verizon might be busy talking about spectrum, LTE and wireless broadband, but for the company the big and welcome surprise is coming from its fiber optic broadband service, especially as its DSL business starts to decay. In its first quarter of 2012 (ended March 31) earnings report today, the company said that it added 104,000 net broadband connections.
Here are the relevant bits from their press release.
- Verizon added 193,000 net new FiOS Internet connections and 180,000 net new FiOS Video connections in first-quarter 2012. Verizon had a total of 5.0 million FiOS Internet and 4.4 million FiOS Video connections at the end of the quarter.
- FiOS penetration (subscribers as a percentage of potential subscribers) continued to increase. FiOS Internet penetration was 36.4 percent at the end of first-quarter 2012, compared with 33…………………continues on GigaOM
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