Status:  Upcoming/New Filing

Acquirer:  Cogeco Inc. (Canada)

Acquired:  Harron Communications, L.P. (U.S)

Value:  Approx. US$1.4 Billion

Industry:  Telecommunications

On July 10, 2017, Cogeco Communications Inc. of Canada, a subsidiary of Cogeco Inc. of Canada, has announced that its US subsidiary, Atlantic Broadband, has entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement with Harron Communications, L.P., to purchase all of its cable systems operating under the MetroCast brand name.  (Cogeco Communications Press Release, Cogeco Communications Inc. announces that Atlantic Broadband will acquire all of the Metrocast cable systems, July 10, 2017.)  Cogeco, “[t]hrough its Cogeco Communications Inc. subsidiary, . . . provides its residential and business customers with video, Internet and telephony services through its two-way broadband fibre networks.”  (Cogeco Inc. website.)  Harron Communications, through the MetroCast brand, has cable systems that serve “close to 236,000 homes and businesses in New Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia and serve approximately 120,000 broadband, 76,000 pay-TV and 37,000 telephony customers.”  (Cogeco Communications Press Release, July 10, 2017.)  Cogeco Communications views the acquisition of MetroCasts’s systems as adding to Cogeco’s platform in the U.S., creating “a diversified geographical footprint from Maine to Florida.” (Id.)  Under the terms of the asset purchase agreement, CFIUS Approval is a condition to closing. (See Schedule 7.2(c) Required Consents, Asset Purchase Agreement, dated as of July 7, 2017.)