Rural Broadband Buys Muni System

Rural Broadband Investments, the small-market cable operator formed by private equity firm GTCR in 2013, has closed on the acquisition of a municipal cable system in Poplar Bluff (MO), for an undisclosed sum.

The deal is the fifth for RBI and puts the company on the path toward building a platform of 300,000-to-400,000 cable subscribers in small-to-mid-sized rural markets. RBI now served more than 150,000 customers and passes more than 430,000 homes in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Nevada.

RBI’s first acquisition was its purchase of NewWave Communications in February 2013, followed by Cable Management Associates and McDonald Cable/Cablevison systems.