BCI Broadband announced yesterday that it had completed its deal to buy James Cable, which was first announced in April.
BCI Broadband, which was formed by former executives from Bresnan Communications, also announced that it has added cable pioneer Alan Gerry to its advisory board. BCI said that Gerry’s addition to its board marked the first time he has been directly involved with a cable operator since the sale of what was then the eight-largest MSO, Cablevision Industries Corporation (CVI), to Time Warner in 1996.
“Alan Gerry is not just a cable pioneer, but one of the names so often credited with creating our modern cable broadband industry,” said BCI president and CEO Jeff DeMond. “The relationship between BCI and Alan and his team is as deep as it is long. We welcome our new colleagues at James Cable to the BCI family, and could not be more proud to announce that we are the vehicle chosen by Alan and his team to re-enter the industry.”
The James Cable acquisition marked the company’s second deal this year after it previously purchased Allegiance Communications in January.
Financial terms for both the deals weren’t released.
With the latest acquisition completed, BCI said it would combine the former James Cable and Allegiance operations.
“BCI Broadband’s reinvestment plan for the former Allegiance assets is well underway,” said BCI executive vice president and CFO Andy Kober. “Our completion of the James Cable acquisition is a focused next step in our plan, which will build scale and reclaim share as we deliver industry leading products and services to these largely complementary markets.”
BCI didn’t say how many subscribers James Cable had. As recently as 2010, James Cable had claimed as many as 50,000 subscribers. James Cable does business as Mediastream, the name of an operator in Georgia that James Cable purchased in 2011.
The former Allegiance systems were spread across the states of Arkansas, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. The acquisition of James Cable will expand BCI’s presence in Oklahoma and Texas, and add Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Wyoming and Colorado to the list of states where BCI will have systems.
