St. Louis-based CountryWide Broadband, Inc. to Acquire iTV-3 Cable Business

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CountryWide Broadband (CWB) today announced that iTV-3, LLC, a company wholly owned by CWB and Seaport Capital of New York, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of iTV-3 Inc., a gigabyte, all fiber-to-the-premises system serving Peoria, Champaign, Urbana and other communities in Central Illinois.  iTV-3 Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Highland Ventures, Ltd.  CWB anticipates closing the acquisition in the second quarter of 2016, after regulatory and franchise approvals are received.

The iTV-3 fiber system is able to serve 26,000 homes as well as thousands of businesses.  CountryWide has aggressive plans to grow the system further, both in terms of customers and through the construction of additional fiber infrastructure in the Peoria, Champaign and Urbana markets. 

"We're extremely excited about our acquisition of iTV-3," noted Grier Raclin, president and chief executive officer of CountryWide.  "The markets that iTV-3 serves are vibrant and have great growth potential.  Our CWB management team has tremendous broadband and fiber experience and we're eager to bring that expertise to work with the outstanding iTV-3 employees to provide gigabit service to the residents and business owners in the greater Peoria, Champaign and Urbana areas." 

iTV-3 offers fully fiber optic, gigabit network services in Central Illinois, providing high-speed internet access, television and voice services to residents and businesses.  Highland Ventures, Ltd., parent of iTV-3, Inc., owned, operated and grew the system since 2009. 

"When we started iTV-3, we set out aggressive growth goals that we have surpassed," said Keith Hoogland, President of Highland Ventures, Ltd.  "We're very proud of our iTV-3 employees' performance, and are extremely happy to turn the business over to industry veterans who share our vision and commitment to continue to grow the system aggressively."

RBC Capital Markets served as the exclusive merger and acquisition advisor to iTV-3, Inc. in connection with this transaction.

About CountryWide Broadband, Inc.
CountryWide Broadband, Inc. (CWB) is a broadband acquisition and management firm headed by a management team with broad expertise in the fiber-optic, cable and telephone industries.  The CWB executive team has almost 100 years of experience in telecommunications, having served as senior executives for Charter Communications, Williams Communications, Fidelity Communications and Global TeleSystems of London, England.  Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, CWB plans to acquire, consolidate and grow additional broadband properties in markets throughout the United States. www.cwbinc.net

About Seaport Capital
Seaport Capital is a New York City-based private equity firm that invests in recurring revenue companies operating in the communications, information and business services sectors.  Previous Seaport portfolio companies in the Cable industry include Everest Communications, Marianas Cablevision, Otelco and Metrocast Cablevision. www.seaportcapital.com

About iTV-3 Inc.
iTV-3 Inc. is a subsidiary of Highland Ventures, Ltd., the Illinois-based family-owned parent company of Family Video, Hoogland Foods (dba Marco's Pizza), Stay Fit 24, Digital Doc and Legacy Commercial Properties. Highland Ventures owns and operates over 920 retail locations and has developed more than 650 retail strip centers under its commercial properties division across the United States and Canada. It has been in the Internet Service Provider business for more than 20 years, and has provided fiber-based services since 2009. For more information, visit www.iTV-3.com.

SOURCE CountryWide Broadband, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.cwbinc.net/