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Companies
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Skyware Radio Systems GmbH
In the Spring of 2009, Satellite Holdings, LLC (a partnership between Granahan McCourt and The Edgewater Funds) acquired Skwyare Radio Systems GmbH in a 100% stock purchase. Skyware is a premier electronics engineering and design concerns previoiusly owned by Philips (NYSE: PHG) and specializes in the design and development of electronic components for satellite antenna systems.
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ASC Signal Corp
On May 29, 2009, Satellite Holdings, LLC (a partnership between Granahan McCourt and The Edgewater Funds) acquired the Direct-to-Home (DTH), Very Small Aperturer Terminal (VSAT) and Radio Frequency (RF) business units of ASC Signal Corp, a company previously owned by Andrew Corporation. A series of strategic acquisitions sees Satellite Holdings and its group of companies (including the ASC assets, Raven Group, and Skyware GmbH) as becoming a global, total solutions provider of integrated outdoor units (ODU) and associated electronics and equipment.
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Following the acquisition of ASC Signal and Satellite Holdings, LLC (a partnership between Granahan McCourt and The Edgewater Funds) expanded its global presence and acquired ASC PRC, an electronics manufacturing concern with locations in Shenzen, China and Hong Kong.
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Raven Antenna Systems, Raven Group
On January 1, 2009. Satellite Holdings, LLC (a partnership between Granahan McCourt and The Edgewater Funds) invested in Raven Group, LTD to boost its expansion in becoming a total solutions provider for integrated oudoor units (ODU) and associated electronics and equipment.
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RCN Corporation
RCN Corporation was one of the 4 publicly-traded companies spun out through the C-TEC investment. Taking advantage of technological and regulatory changes, McCourt forced the collision of the telecommunications and cable industries: McCourt founded RCN, the first provider of phone, internet and cable services delivered over one network. RCN (which stands for Residential Communications Network) pioneered the “bundle” of telecommunications services in major metropolitan cities such as Boston, New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Chicago. RCN introduced ground-breaking, triple-play, high-bandwidth services to consumers who were hungry for a choice. McCourt, who served as Chairman and CEO, was incredibly successful at raising capital to invest in this ground-breaking vision.
Unlike hundreds of telecommunications companies that succumbed to the telecom meltdown in the early 2000's and went out of business, McCourt's leadership steered the company through a series of sophisticated financial transactions and a restructuring that reduced the company’s debt substantially. With over half a billion in revenue today, RCN, based in Herndon, VA, delivers a full-suite of technologically advanced products to the residential and commercial markets.
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Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises
was one of the 4 publicly traded companies companies spun out through the C-TEC investment. Consistent with the Granahan McCourt investment philosophy, McCourt recognized that such a catalyst event could generate strong shareholder returns. Headquartered in Dallas, PA, Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises, Inc., serves a growing base of business and residential customers with a full array of technologically advanced data and voice telecommunications products and services, including broadband data services and high-speed Internet access, delivered over its 100% digitally switched, fiber-rich network.
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Cable Michigan
Cable Michigan was one of the 4-publicly-traded companies spun out through the C-TEC investment. C-TEC owned a majority interest in Cable Michigan when McCourt acquired controlling interest. McCourt, a strategic investor, realized that by driving the cable operations and streamlining costs, he could maximize the value of the asset. Shortly after the tax-free spin-off, McCourt took advantage of the company’s solid performance, the recent jump in the valuation of cable properties as well as other current changes in the cable environment and sold the company for approximately 11 times cash flow, or $435 million.
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Mercom
Mercom, Inc., was one of the 4 publicly-traded companies spun out through the C-TEC investment. C-TEC owned nearly 20% of Mercom, Inc., a cable provider with systems in Michigan and Florida, when McCourt took controlling interest. McCourt recognized that he could create a catalyst event to increase the value of the asset, and in 1995, he held a rights offering which raised $100 Million. After the spin, the company was sold to Avalon Cable of Michigan.
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C-TEC Corporation
After spending a decade in the 1980’s of building cable and telecommunications networks in the United States and abroad, McCourt began to sense that the rapid technological changes would most certainly inspire regulatory changes in the way telecommunication services were delivered to consumers. In 1993, McCourt formed a $196M partnership and acquired controlling interest in C-TEC Corporation, a diversified telecommunications company with attractive assets. McCourt recognized that with the regulatory changes on the horizon, coupled with his knowledge of the industry, he could create catalyst events to create extraordinary shareholder value.
A strategic investor, McCourt immediately went to work and further capitalized the business by selling C-TEC’s non-strategic assets. Combined with 5 accretive acquisitions, McCourt took the remaining assets and in a tax-efficient manner, created four publicly traded companies: Mercom, Inc., Cable Michigan, Inc., RCN Corporation and Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises, Inc.
When the partnership distributed the assets, the return on the $196 million investment beat industry indicies by almost 300%.
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McCourt Kiewit International
McCourt had experienced success in the United Sates starting and running companies that took advantage of new technologies in building cable and telecommunications systems. Interested in applying technologies in the international landscape, and recognizing there were similar opportunities in the United Kingdom, McCourt merged McCourt Cable & Communications into a Peter Kiewit Sons, Inc. subsidiary and founded McCourt Kiewit International (MKI) in 1989. MKI quickly became Europe’s largest designer and builder of hybrid cable and phone networks. MKI International was eventually sold to Metropolitan Fiber Systems which later sold to MCI/Worldcom for $14.3 billion.
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Corporate Communications Network
In the mid-1980's, it became clear to David McCourt that technology was changing the competitive landscape and that he could create catalyst events to spearhead the change -- and create strong returns. In 1987, going head-to-head with the behemoth AT&T, McCourt founded the first competitive phone company in the US: Corporate Communications Network.
McCourt founded the country’s first competitive phone company to bypass the local monopoly. Corporate Communications Network pioneered the competitive alternative to the Bell companies – a bold move which was unheard of at the time and a concept that was not yet on the horizon of any regulatory bodies. McCourt created additional catalyst events by providing a full suite of cutting-edge service technologies which included an integrated architecture to connect communications hardware and applications via fiber-optic network systems. The service was known as McCourt Advanced Network Systems and provided large companies with a complete enterprise solution for telecommunications needs -- from the designing and building of the systems to maintenance and repair. In 1989, Corporate Communications Network merged with Metropolitan Fiber Systems which later sold to MCI/Worldcom for $14.3 billion.
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McCourt Entertainment
In the early 1980’s, David C. McCourt formed McCourt Entertainment and since then, Mr. McCourt has been producing educational family programming both in the states and internationally. For the past 25 years, in addition to investing in businesses focused on telecommunications infrastructure, Mr. McCourt continued to buy and sell media properties such as Lancit Media, acclaimed producers of The Puzzle Place, Backyard Safari and Reading Rainbow ( http://gpn.unl.edu/rainbow/) . Under McCourt’s leadership, Reading Rainbow went on to win several Daytime Emmy’s, with McCourt recently winning a producer’s Emmy in the Spring 2005.
Over the past several years, McCourt has executive produced several shows including the ten-part documentary series What’s Going On?, which examines the impact of global conflict on the lives of children around the world. The widely praised Showtime television series, produced in cooperation with the United Nations, attracted the support and participation of numerous prominent actors including Meg Ryan, Michael Douglas, and Richard Gere. Mr. McCourt most recently co-produced Miracle’s Boys on Viacom's new teenage network, “The N”. “Miracles Boys” is a six part mini-series directed by Spike Lee and other great filmmakers such as LeVar Burton and Bill Duke.
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Discovery Television
In 1983, following the U.S. military intervention to free the Caribbean island of Grenada, David C. McCourt served as a private sector volunteer on the White House Task Force to aid in the rebuilding of Grenada. Post-intervention created the perfect Granhan McCourt investment environment -- McCourt took advantage of the regulatory changes that allowed a non-government affiliated television network and built Grenada’s first private television station.
McCourt founded Discovery TV -- Grenada’s first independent TV station with broadcasting capabilities through their own nationwide network. To enable a lean, low-cost operation, McCourt established an international exchange program with Missouri State University to train students and employees in all aspects of running a TV station, from engineering to construction to operations and production. The production arm of the channel produced original, independent programming focused on news and education that was picked up and carried by other stations in the Caribbean as well. In fact, in 1988, Discovery TV’s teen-age show, “What Do Kids Know Anyway?” won an award as the best of its kind in the Caribbean. Discovery TV was sold to the Grenadian government in 1989 and provided returns of approximately 221%.
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McCourt Cable Systems
In the early 1980’s, the nation’s households were just being wired for cable TV. By 1983, roughly two-thirds of the country’s households had not been wired, and soaring construction costs had halted expansion to the nation’s urban centers, which, at the time represented four-fifths of the remaining market. Once again, technological changes were creating a ripe Granahan McCourt investment environment. Traditional building methods were expensive – running as much as a quarter of a million dollars per mile in urban centers. Realizing that traditional building methods would price cable right out the big cities, McCourt became a catalyst in the industry by investing in a new business that was based on new technologies that would provide an economic solution.
McCourt founded McCourt Cable Systems in Boston, MA in 1982. McCourt developed, tested, refined and introduced new technologies that formed the basis for a revolutionary construction process that dramatically reduced the cost and time in the installation of underground cable. This process, named the McCourt Boston Integral (MBI), helped the company secure lucrative contracts with urban cable providers such as Cablevision, Continental Cable, Time Warner, among others. Because McCourt Cable Systems delivered such astounding service results, MBI eventually became the standard of cable construction across the country.
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