DirecTV Closes 180 Connect Deal

DirecTV Wednesday announced it has completed its acquisition of 180 Connect, an installation and home service provider servicing 46 U.S. markets from New Jersey to Hawaii.

Prior to the acquisition, DIRECTV had outsourced all its installation service operations through 12 different home service provider companies.

The deal, first announced in April, will cost the DBS roughly $46 million based on its offer of $1.80 per share for all 25.5 million shares of the Englewood, Colo.-based media installation and home integration business. With debt included, the deal is valued at just over $100 million.

180 Connect provides installation services to subscribers in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Arkansas, Virginia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

“With the close of the 180 Connect agreement, we’ve taken an important step toward developing the best installation network in the industry and further enhancing customer satisfaction,” Mike Palkovic, DirecTV’s executive vice president of operations, said in a statement. “Improving the service experience for our customers is as important as anything we do on the technology and content side of our business and we believe we will now be in a stronger position to better understand and meet the challenges of providing a high-quality experience for our customers.”

In a related transaction, UniTek USA acquired 180 Connect’s cable services operating unit and certain DirecTV installation services from DirecTV, in exchange for UniTek’s satellite installation services in New York, Burbank, Calif. and Bloomington, Calif. and cash.