Atlantic Broadband Sees More M&A After MetroCast Integration

Having closed Thursday on its $1.4 billion MetroCast acquisition, Atlantic Broadband is considering additional mergers and acquisitions. "We have an appetitive for more" once the MetroCast integration is complete, President Dave Isenberg told us Thursday. He said Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is a co-investor in the MetroCast deal, with the idea of future acquisitions. "They see this as a platform for growth," Isenberg said, saying opportunities range from cable operators to regional fiber networks perhaps contiguous to Atlantic Broadband service areas. The MetroCast deal was announced in July (see 1707100040). Atlantic owner Cogeco Communications said it now operates in 11 states. It said MetroCast will keep its existing brand and will offer a variety of enhanced services under the Atlantic Broadband brand starting in the spring. Isenberg said Atlantic will use the same strategy with the rest of MetroCast that it employed with its 2015 takeover of MetroCast operations in Connecticut (see 1508210008): a variety of new products and services aimed both at residential customers, like gigabit Internet speeds and Atlantic's TiVo-based video platform, and at enterprise customers, such as hosted private branch exchange services. He said Atlantic continues to see broadband growth, and doesn't anticipate incoming 5G services providing significant competition to its wireline services in the near future since the company largely focuses on suburban and rural territories. It "will be an incredibly long time" before a wireless solution replicates terrestrial service, he said. Programmers increasingly are open to skinnier cable bundles, though there's not consensus among programmers, Isenberg said. "We're not at an inflection point, but the trend is clear," he said. He said video remains profitable and an Atlantic priority, and the Connecticut territory went from losing video customers at faster than industry averages to adding customers profitably.