Quick Hits
By Staff -- Multichannel News, 12/11/2005 7:00:00 PM
Mediacom Cites Gains in First Phone Market
New York — Mediacom Communications Corp. executive vice president and chief financial officer Mark Stephan (pictured at right) said the secondary-market operator is beginning to see some positive results from its telephone-service rollout, with its first market reporting 6% penetration in just five months.
Mediacom launched voice service in Gibson City, Ill., in June. At the UBS Warburg Global Media Conference here Dec. 7, Stephan said that while it is still too early to tell about the impact of voice on basic subscriber retention, early signs are positive. Mediacom has voice service available to 1.2 million homes within its 2.8 million-home base, and the goal is to have the service available to 2.5 million homes by the end of 2006.
Mediacom has about 1.4 million video subscribers, so Stephan said the remaining 1.3 million homes in its footprint with no relationship with the MSO could be targets for phone service — and then for video and high-speed Internet.
Liberty Signs $477M Deal To Buy Provide Commerce
Englewood, Colo. — Liberty Media Corp. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Provide Commerce Inc. for $477 million in cash, or $33.75 per Provide share.
Provide Commerce is an electronic-commerce marketplace of Web sites for perishable goods marketed under the brands ProFlowers, Cherry Moon Farms, Uptown Prime and Secret Spoon. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2006.
JP Morgan Securities Inc. advised Provide, which, after the acquisition, will remain a separate subsidiary within Liberty.
Startup Jet Broadband Buys Subs From Bahakel
New York — Privately held Bahekel Communications of Charlotte, N.C., completed the sale of cable systems in Virginia and West Virginia to Jet Broadband, a Stamford, Conn.-based cable company headed by former Helicon Cable Communications partner and senior executive David Baum.
Terms were not disclosed. The systems have about 17,000 video customers and 1,000 high-speed Internet subscribers. New York-based investment banker DH Capital LLC initiated the transaction and advised Bahakel. David Abraham & Co. LLC represented Jet Broadband. MCG Capital of Arlington, Va., provided the financing to Jet Broadband.
Helicon had about 171,000 subscribers in North Carolina, South Carolina and other parts of the East Coast before selling them to Charter Communications Inc. in 1999.
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