Palisade Infrastructure has acquired Washington Internet services provider (ISP) Rainier Connect.
The company this week completed the acquisition of 100 percent of the equity interests in Mashell, Ranier's parent company.
As part of the acquisition, Rainier Connect has been rebranded as Lightcurve with immediate effect.
This is Australian infrastructure investment firm Palisade's third transaction this year in North America, following the closing of its investment in the PureSky Energy community solar platform in June, and the acquisition of assets from Consolidated Communications Inc in August.
"The transaction represents our first step in the creation of a regional platform for fiber and high-speed broadband connectivity," said Mike Reynolds, managing director for the Americas at Palisade Infrastructure. "We also recently announced a transaction to acquire the Washington properties of Consolidated Communications, furthering our commitment to Lightcurve as the trusted regional provider of broadband."
Based in Tacoma, Washington State, Lightcurve has been around for 110 years.
The fixed voice and broadband provider currently serves Tacoma, Eatonville, Centralia, Chehalis, and Graham.
Anand Vadapalli, who acted as an advisor to Palisade for the transaction, is now president & CEO of Lightcurve.
Founded in 2007, Palisade has assets across Australia and Europe and is planning to launch a North American diversified infrastructure fund, with an initial focus on digital connectivity and energy transition, in the coming months.
"Our commitment to the community and customers will not only continue but will be stronger than ever. There’s a huge hole in the rural and under-resourced communities that needs to be filled with broadband and we are committed to closing the digital divide. We are dedicated to helping connect as many Americans to high-speed Internet as possible and create new opportunities in the communities we serve,” added Reynolds.
Houlihan Lokey acted as financial advisor and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP acted as legal advisor to Palisade.
Bank Street served as the exclusive financial advisor to Rainier Connect on the transaction.
