Time Warner Cable has closed its $600 million acquisition of DukeNet Communications, a deal that will add more than 8,700 route miles to the MSO’s optical network in the southeast, including markets such as North Carolina and South Carolina.
TWC announced the deal in October, estimating at the time that about 80% of DukeNet’s regional fiber network was in the MSO’s footprint. While the bulk of DukeNet’s network covers North Carolina and South Carolina, a portion also reaches into five other states, including hubs in Richmond, Va.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Birmingham, Ala. Before the transaction, DukeNet was jointly owned by Duke Energy Corp. and investment funds managed by Alinda Capital Partners. RBC Capital Markets served as financial adviser to Duke Energy and Alinda, and Moore & Van Allen PLLC provided legal counsel. Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP provided legal counsel to Time Warner Cable.
TWC said it expects to use the additional fiber to connect and serve business customers in need of voice, high-speed Internet and cloud-enabled hosting. It will also tap it to grow its carrier business, which provides backhaul services to wireless providers. TWC Business Class now services more than 10,000 cell towers in the U.S., the MSO said.
“We welcome our new customers and look forward to serving their communications needs with our network’s expanded reach, additional product offerings and enhanced level of customer service. We’re also very excited for our existing customers, as this additional fiber capacity will enable us to extend our fiber reach and help them connect to our network from more business locations,” Phil Meeks, EVP and COO of business services at Time Warner Cable, said in a statement.
Meeks, who is late of Cox Communications and joined TWC in June, recently reorganized the unit, setting a goal of reaching $5 billion in annual revenues in four to five years, more than doubling the division’s current annual output.
