Stonepeak acquires US operator Astound for US$8.1 billion

Private equity firm Stonepeak has announced a deal to buy US cable TV and ISP Astound Broadband for US$8.1 billion.

The company will buy the operator from TPG Capital and Patriot Media Management, with the deal including US$4.5 billion of debt. The deal is expected to close in Q2 2021.

Astound is the sixth largest cable operator in the US, and operates leading regional providers RCN, Grande, Wave and enTouch. It serves eight of the top ten largest metro areas throughout the US and over one million customers with 23,000 miles of fibre across Chicago, Eastern Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York City, Northern California, Oregon, Texas, Washington, DC., and Washington.

TPG reportedly first started exploring a sale of Astound in August.

Jim Holanda, CEO of Astound said: “We have created a market leading broadband platform with national reach, broad capabilities and expertise, and exciting growth potential. We are very eager and excited to partner with a premier investor such as Stonepeak to further accelerate our growth and take our companies to new levels of customer satisfaction and performance. We also want to thank TPG for their great support and partnership over the past four years.”