PRIVATE EQUITY OWNED
Consolidated Communications (now Fidium)
Includes CCI
Telecom / Internet · Mattoon, IL
- PE Firm
- Searchlight Capital Partners
- Year Acquired
- 2024
A PE firm now owns the internet lines into 2.6 million homes and businesses across 20-plus states. In much of its rural footprint, there's no other option.
What They Did
- Searchlight Capital bought into Consolidated in 2020 with a $425 million investment, then partnered with Canadian pension manager BCI to take the whole company private in a $3.1 billion deal that closed in December 2024
- Its network passes 2.6 million homes and businesses across more than 20 states, concentrated in northern New England, Texas, and other rural markets where broadband alternatives are limited or nonexistent
- Within months of going private, the company borrowed $1.34 billion against its own fiber network — new debt stacked on top of the buyout
- In September 2025 the new owners retired the Consolidated name entirely, rebranding the whole company as Fidium
Since the Acquisition
- Vermont regulators signed off on the buyout while noting the company had met all of its baseline retail service-quality standards in just one quarter in its entire history of reporting
- Fiber upgrade promises have been slow to materialize while customers pay full price for subpar DSL and copper connections
- Nearly half its footprint is still stuck on copper and DSL lines, and Vermont's Department of Public Service warned the copper network serving those customers "will face further neglect and deterioration"
Sources
- State regulators approve sale of Consolidated Communications to private equity firm(2024-11-18)
- Consolidated Communications Announces Agreement to be Acquired by Searchlight Capital Partners and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation(2023-10-15)
- Consolidated Communications announces agreement to be acquired by Searchlight Capital Partners and BCI(2023-10)
- Consolidated Communications Closes Inaugural $1.344 Billion Asset Backed Securitization and $1.5 Billion Revolving Warehouse Facility(2025-05)
- Vermont Public Utility Commission signs off on Consolidated Communications sale(2024-11-22)
- FFB Week 30: Fidium Transforms New England's Future with Fiber (Fiber Broadband Association)(2025-07-23)
- Consolidated Communications Becomes Fidium, Uniting All Services Under One Bold Identity(2025-09-22)
- Consolidated Communications Announces Strategic Investment from Searchlight Capital Partners; Initiates Refinancing(2020-09-14)
- Wiley Advises Searchlight in $3.1 Billion Acquisition of Consolidated Communications(2025-01)