Seyfarth Shaw Finishes Strong Year with more than $1 Billion in Cable and Telecom M&A Deals

Contact:

Ivette Delgado, Senior Public Relations Associate
(212) 218-5273, idelgado@seyfarth.com

NEW YORK (December 15, 2011) - In the past 12 months, law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP has closed more than $1 billion in cable and telecom industry transactions, including a $350 million acquisition for Suddenlink Communications and the purchase and sale of various cable and telecom assets totaling in the hundreds of millions for companies such as AT&T, US Cable and Windjammer Communications.

"The past 12 months have been a busy time for us with numerous cable clients acquiring or shedding assets for strategic reasons. We are gratified to be a go-to firm for leading cable operators and financial institutions engaging in M&A transactions in the cable space," said Andrew Lucano, corporate partner and vice chair of Seyfarth’s Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group. "We also have had significant deal flow in the telecommunications industry, representing a leading telecom provider in several M&A transactions."

Joel Cartee, a corporate partner with Seyfarth in Atlanta said, "2011 was active in terms of cable and telecom deals and we expect 2012 to be equally robust. While there is continued consolidation in these industries, there are also new companies entering this space and/or expanding their existing telecom/cable businesses. In the telecom industry, the major carriers are being joined by foreign companies, private equity firms and cable companies looking to fulfill specific strategic objectives with telecommunication asset acquisitions and dispositions."

Among the cable and telecom transaction highlights from 2011 include:

• Seyfarth Shaw advised Cequel Communications, LLC, which does business as Suddenlink Communications, in its acquisition of NPG Cable, Inc. and its subsidiaries from News-Press & Gazette Co. for approximately $350 million. The transaction closed April 1, 2011.
• Seyfarth Shaw represented Windjammer Communications LLC, a cable operator providing television, high-speed Internet and phone services, in the sale of broadband systems serving, in aggregate, approximately 17,000 customers in Alabama and Georgia to Charter Communications. Charter is a leading broadband communications company, and the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States. The transaction closed on August 1, 2011.
• Seyfarth Shaw represented US Cable of Coastal-Texas, L.P. in the sale of broadband systems serving, in aggregate, approximately 16,000 customers in Missouri to Charter Communications. The transaction closed on September 1, 2011.
• Seyfarth Shaw represented US Cable of Coastal-Texas, L.P. in the sale of broadband systems serving, in the aggregate, approximately 33,000 customers in Minnesota and Wisconsin to Midcontinent Communications. The transaction closed on October 1, 2011.
• Seyfarth Shaw represents AT&T Inc. on a routine basis in connection with M&A transactions throughout the United States in the telecom industry, including more than twenty transactions in the last two years with an aggregate deal value exceeding $1 billion.

"We look forward to working with buyers and sellers of cable and telecom assets in the year ahead. Seyfarth Shaw attorneys understand the intricacies of each industry, having advised numerous clients on the legal aspects of deals in multiple regions of the United States as well as internationally," said Lucano.

Seyfarth Shaw has over 750 attorneys located in 10 offices throughout the United States, including: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., as well as internationally in London. Seyfarth Shaw provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation, corporate and real estate. The firm’s clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, and our practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the economy. For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com .