Lexington, KY - Insight Communications has been sold to the nation's second largest cable provider in a $3 billion deal, Insight and it's new owner Time Warner Cable announced Monday morning.
Reuters reported that the deal followed months of talks between Insight's owner, Carlyle Group and several strategic and private equity bidders. There also had been a failed attempt to auction Insight.
Insight, Kentucky's largest cable and Internet provider and number 10 nationally, has approximately 537,000 high-speed data customers, 679,000 cable television subscribers and 297,000 phone customers in markets including Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.
Time Warner, trailing only Comcast nationally, has more than 14 million customers around the country and is the second largest provider in the commonwealth and first in Ohio, another area with strong Insight presence.
"The communities that we serve could not be in better hands than with Time Warner Cable. They're already a major operator in Central Kentucky, and they're regarded across the country as one of the most respected technology companies. Because of their industry leading position and their depth of resources, Time Warner is going to continue building on the advancements that Insight's employees have made," said Insight spokesman Jason Keller.
Insight employs around 2,500 people throughout Kentucky in markets including Lexington, Louisville, Northern Kentucky and Henderson. Time Warner spokesman Alex Dudley said the two companies operate in similar fashions, which should prevent jarring customers, both consumer and commercial, with any major changes.
"One of the things that made Insight attractive to us was they have good folks running good systems that make a lot of sense for us. From the customer perspective, we run the same kind of business, so largely I wouldn't expect any wholesale changes in the way the products and services are delivered," Dudley said.
Both Insight and Time Warner are based in New York City, though most of Insight's operations are housed in the region near their client base.
The companies have not set an expected closing date as a number of regulatory bridges need to be crossed, though Keller said similar sales have run their course in roughly six months, though that holds no bearing on this deal.
Insight's owner, the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, had begun looking at opportunities to sell the cable provider or possibly acquire others a few months ago, Keller said. The group had undertaken the same exercise last year and once before, two or three years earlier without making any changes noticeable to the customers.