Boston-based private equity giant ABRY Partners completed its acquisition of RCN Corp Thursday, and has tapped two cable veterans - Steve Simmons and Jim Holanda - to head up the newly private company.
ABRY said in March that it would acquire RCN in a deal valued at about $1.2 billion. ABRY, which has been a long-time cable investor, agreed to pay $15 per share in cash for every RCN share and assume its debt.
In a statement, ABRY said it has tapped Simmons, who most recently headed up Patriot Media & Communications, a cable system in Central New Jersey with about 80,000 customers - as chairman of RCN. Former Patriot president Holanda will serve as CEO of the company.
Simmons purchased the Central New Jersey systems from RCN in 2003 for $245 million (with the backing of Spectrum Equity)and renamed them Patriot Media & Communications. He sold the systems to Comcast in 2007 for $483 million.
Simmons is also chairman of Choice Cable TV of Puerto Rico where Holanda also serves as CEO.
"RCN has been a leader in customer service, advanced technological infrastructure, product bundling and delivery in a very competitive environment. We look forward to further developing every aspect of our customers' experience by offering the best possible service and value," Holanda said in a statement.
The RCN Metro business -- its high-capacity fiber optic transport business for large enterprise customers -- will be led by former RCN executive vice president and chief financial officer Mike Sicoli.
With the closing of the deal, RCN's stock, previously traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, has been delisted.
Waller Capital Partners and Deutsche Bank Securities acted as financial advisers to the special committee of RCN's board of directors with respect to the transaction. Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey acted as exclusive financial adviser to ABRY Partners and also served as left lead joint bookrunner for the debt financing. GE Capital Markets and SG Americas Securities aslo acted as Joint Bookrunners for the debt financing.
