In The News
SOURCE: Multichannel News

WEED BACK IN CABLE'S GARDEN

By Mike Farrell
Multichannel News
3/13/2003

Former Millennium Digital Media executive Steven Weed is officially back in cable, raising about $70 million in part to purchase cable systems in Washington state with a combined 22,000 subscribers.

Weed purchased the systems through Wave Broadband, a company he set up in late 2001 to acquire cable properties.

New York-based investment banker DH Capital LLC helped Wave to raise the money -- $32.5 million in private equity from Sandler Capital Management, a New York investment bank, and $37.5 million in senior debt commitments from Wells Fargo & Co. and U.S. Bancorp.

Terms of the deals were not released, but industry observers estimated that the systems were worth $1,800 to $2,000 per subscriber, or about $39.6 million to $44 million. Other funds would go for upgrades and other acquisitions.

Northland sold properties in Camano Island, Bayview, Sequim, Clallam Bay, La Conner and Port Angeles, Wash.

Cedar Communications sold systems in Big Lake, Cheney and Lake Goodwin.

These are the first cable-buyout deals for Weed, who left Millennium in February 2002.

A 14-year industry veteran, Weed ran Millennium’s 70,000-subscriber Seattle system for four years.

Prior to that, he served for about 10 years as chief operating officer and CEO of Summit Communications, which had owned that system. Weed sold Summit to Millennium in 1999.