TPG has agreed to buy cable television providers RCN and Grande Communications for about $2.25 billion

Tom Paine

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Private-equity firm TPG has agreed to buy cable television providers RCN and Grande Communications for about $2.25 billion including debt, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday night. The seller is Abry Partners.

RCN, a so-called 'overbuilder' that provides competitive cable services in some areas, serves parts of Delaware County and the Lehigh Valley. It began existence by acquiring a controlling interest in C-TEC of Wilkes-Barre, and Twin County Cable in Lehigh Valley in the 1990s.

An interesting aspect of the deal, which may be announced on Monday, is that Google Capital, Alphabet Inc.’s growth-equity investment fund, is taking a minority stake in the companies. Perhaps its trying to learn more about the cable business, as reports have indicated that Alphabet is reassessing expansion plans for Google Fiber.








The two separate deals were announced Monday.

RCN, based in Princeton, had more ambitious plans prior to the 2000-era tech bust, which resulted in a period of bankruptcy.

Grande Communications provides similar services in portions of Texas. RCN and Grande will be integrated after their acquisitions, though its unclear what that means.

According to SNL Kagan data, RCN has about 289,000 video subs, and Grande 88,000. The combined companies say they service over 640,000 residential and business customers. RCN would not provide subscription numbers for its Pennsylvania locations.

Princeton-based Patriot Media Consulting, which has managed the two companies for Abry, is part of the new ownership group and will continue in its management role.