More than two years after declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Broadstripe Communications has agreed to sell its assets to WideOpenWest and Wave Broadband.
DH Capital is providing advisory services to Broadstripe on the transaction.
According to documents filed with the Delaware Bankruptcy Court,Wave has agreed to pay $32 million for Broadstripe systems with roughly 60,000 subscribers and 103,000 homes passed in Washington and Oregon and WOW has agreed to pony up about $55 million for Broadstripe assets in Michigan with about 48,000 customers and 92,000 homes passed.
Broadstripe's Ann Arundel County, Md., property is in the process of being acquired by a newly formed entity, Ann Arundel Broadband, headed by a group of industry veterans, including Broadstripe executive vice president of regional operations John Bjorn for about $8 million, according to court documents. The deal s are subject to approval from the court and could take about 4 months to close.
All together, the deals will give Broadstripe about $95 million, or a little more than half what it owes to secured creditors, the majority of them have given their conditional consent to the deal, pending better offers, according to the court documents.
The deals mark the end of a two-year odyssey for Broadstripe, formerly Millennium Digital Media, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009.
"With this acquisition, Wave continues a tradition of expansion in strategic West Coast markets," Wave CEO Steve Weed said in a statement. "Wave's successful growth stems from our sincere commitment to providing superior products and exceptional service to our customers. And we look forward to serving these communities."
For WOW, the deal comes on the heels of its participation in the highly publicized auction for Insight Communications, which reached a deal to sell its systems to Time Warner Cable for $3 billion earlier this month. WOW, owned by Avista Capital Partners, serves about 1.5 million households in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.
"We are very excited about this acquisition and the opportunity to invest and further grow our business. WOW!'s operating philosophy is to deliver an employee and customer experience that lives up to our name and we look forward to welcoming Broadstripe's employees and customers into the WOW! family," said WOW! president Steven Cochran in a statement.
