T-Mobile Partners with KKR to Buy Metronet
T-Mobile is going deeper into fiber, investing $4.9 billion in a joint venture with investment firm KKR, which will buy fiber-based provider Metronet. The JV gets Metronet’s infrastructure, residential fiber business and customers, as well as Oak Hill Capital’s stake…
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in the provider. Oak Hill will then reinvest to retain a minority position, T-Mobile said. The announcement comes a week ahead of T-Mobile’s Q2 earnings call. “Metronet is uniquely positioned as the fastest-growing pure play fiber company in the U.S. and an experienced independent fiber-to-the-home operator,” T-Mobile said. In April, T-Mobile announced a partnership with private equity firm EQT as part of a proposed acquisition of fiber-to-the-home provider Lumos (see 2404250047). T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said then that fiber could bolster the company’s fast-growing Home Internet offering. "Metronet is the perfect partner for T-Mobile as a leader in fiber solutions with an incredibly fast build pace, and a top-notch management team,” Sievert said Wednesday. “With this new partnership, Metronet will expand its fiber network faster and farther, reaching millions more households by the end of the decade,” Metronet CEO Dave Heimbach said. The companies expect the deal will close next year.