Avista Capital Partners to Acquire WideOpenWest

Avista Capital Partners to Acquire WideOpenWest

NEW YORK, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Avista Capital Partners announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire cable operator WideOpenWest from Oak Hill Capital Partners and ABRY Partners. WideOpenWest operates cable systems in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio and provides cable, high-speed Internet and digital telephone service under the brand name "WOW!" to 114 municipalities reaching over 1.4 million households. Avista Capital, based in New York, is a private equity firm focusing on investment in the media, energy and healthcare sectors.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The sale is expected to close in the first half of 2006. The existing management team will continue to operate the company under the brand name "WOW!" after the close of the transaction. Northwestern Mutual, based in Milwaukee, and Standard Life Investments (USA), headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, have committed to be minority co-investors in the acquisition.

David Burgstahler, a partner of Avista Capital said, "We are extremely pleased to be partnering with WideOpenWest. We believe strongly in the continued future growth of the cable industry. WOW! is a great brand name and a strong strategic fit for Avista. We're confident in the company's opportunities for additional growth and enthusiastic about partnering with such an exceptional management team."

Colleen Abdoulah, president and chief executive officer of WideOpenWest said, "The WOW! team is excited to be working with Avista. The change in company ownership will be transparent to employees and customers. We remain committed to delivering our customers an array of services which meets their needs, at a great value, backed by award winning customer service."

"WideOpenWest is one of the fastest growing cable television companies in the country and we are delighted to have participated in the value that this management team has created," said J. Crandall, managing partner of Oak Hill Capital Partners.

"We have enjoyed our successful partnership with the WideOpenWest management team and believe that they will continue to generate industry- leading growth in the future," said Jay Grossman, managing partner of ABRY Partners.

Credit Suisse First Boston and Waller Capital acted as financial advisors to the company in connection with this transaction.

About WOW!

WOW! is a competitive provider of cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services. WOW! Cable features Basic Cable, Digital Cable, and advanced services such as HDTV and DVRs. WOW! Internet provides customers with a choice of high-speed connections from 112kbps all the way to 6Mbps. WOW! Phone offers the convenience of unlimited local, long distance, and local toll calling in the United States. Customers can bundle any two or three services together at a great value, while benefiting from the convenience of dealing with just one company for all their entertainment and telecommunications needs.

www.wowway.com

About Avista Capital Partners

Avista Capital Partners is a private equity firm with offices in New York, NY and Houston, TX. The firm was founded in 2005 by seven former Partners and nine former professionals from DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, the private equity affiliate of Credit Suisse Group. Avista seeks to make controlling or influential minority investments primarily in growth-oriented media, healthcare and energy companies. Through its team of seasoned investment professionals and industry experts, Avista seeks to partner with exceptional management teams to invest in and add value to well-positioned businesses.

www.avistacap.com

About Oak Hill Capital Partners

Oak Hill Capital Partners is a private equity firm with more than $4.6 billion of committed capital from leading entrepreneurs, endowments, foundations, corporations, pension funds and global financial institutions. Robert M. Bass is the lead investor. Over a period of nearly 20 years, the professionals at Oak Hill Capital have invested in more than 50 significant private equity transactions, including Genpact, The Container Store, Butler Animal Health Supply, EXLService, Progressive Moulded Products, TravelCenters of America, Blackboard, American Savings Bank (Washington Mutual), Bell & Howell (Proquest), Oreck Corporation and Wometco Cable Corporation. Oak Hill Capital is one of several Oak Hill partnerships, each of which has a dedicated and independent management team. These Oak Hill partnerships comprise over $12 billion of investment capital across multiple asset classes, including private equity, special situations, high yield and bank debt, venture capital, real estate, a public equity exchange fund and a global fixed income and equity hedge fund.

About ABRY Partners

Founded in 1989, ABRY Partners is one of the most experienced and successful private equity investment firms in North America investing primarily in the media and communications industries. ABRY has completed over $18 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity and mezzanine investments across various media and communications sub-sectors including cable television, broadcast television and radio, wireless transmission towers, local wired telephony, business-to-business publishing and trade shows, in-store advertising and marketing, stadium-theater cinemas as well as other media and communications sub-sectors. The firm presently has over $2.1 billion of capital under management on behalf of limited partners which include Fortune 100 pension funds, university endowments, leading insurance companies and commercial banks, and high net worth individuals. Selected equity investments to date include: Atlantic Broadband, Avalon Cable Television (realized), Citadel Communications (realized), Consolidated Theaters, Country Road Communications, Cygnus Business Media, Monitronics International, Network Communications (realized), Nexstar Broadcasting, Pinnacle Towers (realized), Language Line Services, Billing Concepts (realized) and F+W Publications.

www.abry.com

Source: Avista Capital Partners

CONTACT: Cathy Kuo, WideOpenWest, +1-720-479-3518; Jeffrey Taufield,
Kekst & Co., +1-212-521-4815, for Avista Capital Partners; Rhonda Barnat,
Abernathy MacGregor, +1-212-371-5999, for Oak Hill Capital Partners; Jay
Grossman, ABRY Partners, +1-617-859-2959

Web site: http://www.avistacap.com/
http://www.wowway.com/
http://www.abry.com/

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