Private equity firm GTCR has teamed with Mega Broadband Investment to buy small cable operator Vyve Broadband, a provider of voice, video and data based in Shawnee, Okla. Terms were not disclosed.
Vyve provides high-speed data, television and voice services to residential and business customers in rural markets across Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and Wyoming. The purchase will be completed through GTCR’s previously established management partnership with MBI and comes less than a year after MBI’s initial investment in Northland Communications. MSI said in a press release that the deal will double its footprint.
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MBI is headed by long-time cable executive Phil Spencer. MBI and GTCR have partnered before --first in 2012 to form Rural Broadband Investments and later in 2017 the two established MBI – a second management start-up with Mr. Spencer – to focus on acquiring rural broadband assets. Last year the two companies purchased Northland Communications.
“The acquisition of Vyve is an exciting addition to MBI following our recent platform acquisition of Northland,” Spencer said in a press release. “Vyve has developed an excellent network in attractive geographies and we look forward to leveraging Vyve’s state-of-the-art infrastructure to continue to rollout enhanced high-speed data services to both our residential and commercial customers. Further, Vyve has an outstanding employee base, and we plan to build upon the excellent work they have done to date in efforts to continuously improve the quality of service to our customers.”
GTCR and MBI’s investment in Vyve will be funded from GTCR Fund XII, a private equity fund raised in 2017 with $5.25 billion of limited partner capital commitments. Kirkland & Ellis LLP provided legal counsel, PricewaterhouseCoopers served as accounting advisor and Lazard Middle Market LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor to GTCR and MBI.
“The Vyve acquisition is an exciting opportunity to continue to build our investment in the cable industry,” GTCR managing director Phil Canfield said in a press release. “We look forward to continuing our work with Phil Spencer and his team to build a leading cable platform through increasing high-speed data penetration, growth in commercial services, and additional accretive acquisitions.”
GTCR and MBI’s investment in Vyve will be funded from GTCR Fund XII, a private equity fund raised in 2017 with $5.25 billion of limited partner capital commitments. Kirkland & Ellis LLP provided legal counsel, PricewaterhouseCoopers served as accounting advisor and Lazard Middle Market LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor to GTCR and MBI.
