Suburban Cable Inc., a subsidiary of Lenfest Communications
Inc., has closed its acquisition of Raystay Co., a Carlisle, Pa.-based MSO with roughly
61,000 subscribers.
The deal, which was first announced about six months ago,
involves subscribers in Carlisle and in Franklin and Fulton counties in Pennsylvania.
Suburban, which is based in Oaks, Pa., has owned a 45
percent interest in Raystay since 1994. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Raystay operates as TV Cable of Carlisle and TV Cable of
Franklin and Fulton Counties. Those systems will now go under the Suburban Cable name.
Raystay provides service to about 40 different
municipalities in those areas, including Chambersburg, Newville, Mount Holly Springs,
Mercersburg and Waynesboro. The company also provides service to small parts of Washington
and Frederick counties in Maryland.
Suburban said it would hire an additional 12 installation
and technical personnel in the next few weeks as a result of the acquisition. However, the
company added, about eight customer-service and administrative positions will no longer be
needed.
AT&T Broadband & Internet Services acquired the 50
percent of Lenfest it didn't already own in May for about $2.2 billion in AT&T Corp.
stock.
Lenfest -- which has about 1.5 million subscribers in
southeastern and central Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and northern Delaware -- is
expected to be purchased by Comcast Corp. as part of that company's deal with AT&T to
drop out of the bidding for MediaOne Group Inc.
