

mix

join:2002-03-19

Rockford, IL 3 recommendations mix Member Re: majority interest in WOW sold to Crestview It had been pretty obvious that WOW was for sale. Now that it's official, I wonder what the next move is? Massive expansion? Nickel and dime the existing customer base? Hire RootWrym to clean up the IT department?

clocks11

join:2002-05-06

00000 clocks11 Member It appears Crestview has heard stakes in three other cable companies in the past. Have to look into that and see what happened.



bdnhsv

join:2012-01-20

Huntsville, AL bdnhsv to mix

Member to mix

my guess would be some management changes once Marcus takes over as the chairman. Not sure how extensive the changes will be - could be just a few people or could border on a "corporate cleansing" - time will tell.

baess

join:2011-01-28 baess Member I guess I should be happy I got 18 years out of it.



I like how the the press release calls them "one of the nation's leading broadband providers" even though after all their acquisitions they still only have 780,000 subscribers and I really like that they are "dedicated to delighting customers with friendly, quality service at affordable prices." Delighting??



RootWyrm

join:2011-05-09 RootWyrm Member Yeah, that's a reach to begin with. One of the first things Crestview likes to do is to replace all the experienced line techs with fly-by-night contractors. The ones you see with the beat to death pickup trucks that don't know the first thing about RF. The ones that think RG59 is appropriate for a 250' pole run, that don't bury cables, that cut every single corner because they only compete on cost.



Why? "Cost saving measure." They slash things so deeply, more than twice the truck rolls still costs less than keeping people who know what they're doing. Contractors get the piece-work screwjob - they can book 'em for 80 hours a week, all flat-rate. Or in many cases, they'll pay them for 40 hours when booking them for 70+.



They are very much a slash and burn vulture firm. Nobody from there will talk to you unless you're already in beyond dire straits - so WOW's finances were definitely way, way worse shape than they were disclosing. Vultures like Bain use flowery terms like "alternative investment" - Crestview just straight up says "our whole business is taking control of financially distressed companies for our profit."



Speaks volumes by itself, that.

clocks11

join:2002-05-06

00000 1 edit clocks11 Member Since you sound like you are an expert on "vultures", is it better to let the company go bankrupt first, then auction of the pieces? What is your solution?



RootWyrm

join:2011-05-09 RootWyrm Member said by clocks11: Since you sound like you are an expert on "vultures", is it better to let the company go bankrupt first, then auction of the pieces? What is your solution?



Frankly, it's a lose-lose either way. Without knowing more about just how truly screwed WOW really is in terms of finances, couldn't say. Rest assured, very drastic cuts or more territory sales were going to happen either way.



But without a lot of information that simply isn't available, who knows? It's obvious they were already starting to part out the org - see also the recent region sales. My suspicion was that WOW was looking to sell the remaining whole or part to Charter (which Crestview is still involved with), and the TWC-Charter deal nuked it. Couldn't confirm that no matter what for obvious reasons.



Probably would have been the same buyers in a bankruptcy anyhow. I'm not. That's how Crestview's rolled every other time, and that recipe has made them several billion dollars. If it ain't broke, you know? Not to mention they buy MSOs to facilitate shadow-mergers basically.Frankly, it's a lose-lose either way. Without knowing more about just how trulyWOW really is in terms of finances, couldn't say. Rest assured, very drastic cuts or more territory sales were going to happen either way.But without a lot of information that simply isn't available, who knows? It's obvious they were already starting to part out the org - see also the recent region sales. My suspicion was that WOW was looking to sell the remaining whole or part to Charter (which Crestview is still involved with), and the TWC-Charter deal nuked it. Couldn't confirm that no matter what for obvious reasons.Probably would have been the same buyers in a bankruptcy anyhow.

clocks11

join:2002-05-06

00000 clocks11 Member



WOWs financials are posted in the link below, and while it may not show everything, I am doubtful they would publish falsified data. It appears 2015 has been a bad year for them, though that could be partly due to one time events, and/or accounting adjustments. I didn't dig in enough to look for that.



»www.wowway.com/investor- ··· elations I suspect WOW doesn't have the size to get the margins many other cable companies do, especially for TV content. If the financials are crappy, they probably either have to merge or sell out. Crestview was probably the best offer they could get. You can hate on investment firms all you want, but often companies have no where else to turn to and stay afloat. In my view if a group is willing to take the risk to invest in an unprofitable company, they have every right to make the changes needed to turn it around. Otherwise there is no point.WOWs financials are posted in the link below, and while it may not show everything, I am doubtful they would publish falsified data. It appears 2015 has been a bad year for them, though that could be partly due to one time events, and/or accounting adjustments. I didn't dig in enough to look for that.



RootWyrm

join:2011-05-09 RootWyrm Member said by clocks11: I suspect WOW doesn't have the size to get the margins many other cable companies do, especially for TV content. If the financials are crappy, they probably either have to merge or sell out. Crestview was probably the best offer they could get. You can hate on investment firms all you want, but often companies have no where else to turn to and stay afloat. In my view if a group is willing to take the risk to invest in an unprofitable company, they have every right to make the changes needed to turn it around. Otherwise there is no point. WOWs financials are posted in the link below, and while it may not show everything, I am doubtful they would publish falsified data. It appears 2015 has been a bad year for them, though that could be partly due to one time events, and/or accounting adjustments. I didn't dig in enough to look for that. That's not how it works. That's definitely not how Crestview works. They buy up distressed assets at fire sale prices, gut them further while screwing over customers and creditors, and then sell them at a profit or chuck it in the bin and walk away leaving everyone else holding the bag. Only fools and apologists pretend firms like that are white knights there to save companies from themselves.ProTip: they wouldn't be the first to hide debts off the books . In fact, accounting irregularities are pretty much the default operating mode in cable.

clocks11

join:2002-05-06

00000 clocks11 Member Again, assuming WOWs financials are as bad (or worse) than they report, what other outcome would you rather see? You can rail on investment firms all you want (you have been for over a year now), but apparently Google wasn't interested in buying WOW, converting all the coax to fiber, and giving us all 5gb connections for $30/month.



The point is, investment firms are not the problem. They fill a niche that many companies apparently need. This isn't a hostile take-over. The big issue is lack of competition in the industry. And in WOWs case, not sure more competition would have helped them.

jhaller

join:2014-08-17 jhaller to bdnhsv

Member to bdnhsv

Re: significant interest in WOW sold to Crestview Well, it was only a matter of time, private equity companies have funds with a limited lifetime, and Avista must have been ready to close out it's fund. Note that Crestview is keeping Avista on the hook for at least some of the continuing profitability. Typically, the vulture companies will have the company take out debt and pay a dividend right after the sale. In this case, it sounds like WoW needs a cash infusion for something, so Crestview is investing an extra $125 million in addition to what they are paying Avista for their shares/units. At the end of 2014, they owed about $3.7 billion in various loans, so that $125 million won't do much for their debt. They have about $2.8B more debt than they have assets (end 2014), so they are in a tough spot.



But, the biggest problem is that their cash flow prevents making as much of an investment as they have currently been making. They had about $200 million free cash flow before capital investments, but about $250 million in capital investments. Spending more than you make is the road to ruin, when one has more debt than assets. So, no more putting in higher speed internet equipment or routers. Hopefully, those are sufficiently modern to continue deploying to customers. But, we won't be seeing speeds past 300 Mbps which require new head-end equipment anytime soon.



bdnhsv

join:2012-01-20

Huntsville, AL bdnhsv Member $125M might be about what it would cost (fees, commissions, etc) to prepare for and embark on a Chapter 11 restructuring. Just food for thought.

bdnhsv bdnhsv to RootWyrm

Member to RootWyrm

Re: majority interest in WOW sold to Crestview The big 4 MSO's (Comcast, TW, Cox, Charter) have no interest in buying wow - whether they have other mergers going or not. It's cheaper to advertise wow out of their markets than to buy them (and have to deal with the headaches of integrating/migrating things). They also don't want to compete with each other and wow has little areas in 3 of their territories.

clocks11

join:2002-05-06

00000 1 recommendation clocks11 Member Is WOWs infrastructure not worth anything? Here in my area of IL, Comcast has no other competition.



bdnhsv

join:2012-01-20

Huntsville, AL 2 edits bdnhsv Member It has worth to someone who doesn't already have service in the same area, but mosy likely not to the large MSO's.

LoveHD

join:2011-07-31

united state 2 recommendations LoveHD Member It sounds like WOW is FUBAR and will die off with no replacement in serviced areas. It's not good for consumers appreciating having more choices.

anobix

join:2010-03-01

Columbus, OH 1 recommendation anobix to bdnhsv

Member to bdnhsv

Re: significant interest in WOW sold to Crestview I noticed the 'WOW Employees' sticky just disappeared as well. I wonder if that's a sign of things to come.



Unfortunate as I really like our wonderful WOW employees that take the time to answer our questions and provide assistance out of the normal support band.

Body Count

join:2010-09-11

Columbus, OH Netgear CM1000

Ubiquiti EdgeRouter ER-4

Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-AC-PRO

Body Count Member said by anobix: I noticed the 'WOW Employees' sticky just disappeared as well. I wonder if that's a sign of things to come.



Unfortunate as I really like our wonderful WOW employees that take the time to answer our questions and provide assistance out of the normal support band. As with most ownership changes, employees are let go and new ones take their place.

anobix

join:2010-03-01

Columbus, OH anobix Member said by Body Count: said by anobix: I noticed the 'WOW Employees' sticky just disappeared as well. I wonder if that's a sign of things to come.



Unfortunate as I really like our wonderful WOW employees that take the time to answer our questions and provide assistance out of the normal support band. As with most ownership changes, employees are let go and new ones take their place. I know, let's hope that if Dan+James don't stick around that we are able to see employees still visit these forums and provide the assistance that we've received in the past.



bdnhsv

join:2012-01-20

Huntsville, AL bdnhsv to LoveHD

Member to LoveHD

Re: majority interest in WOW sold to Crestview It's possible they could do a major re-org, go through bankruptcy and emerge in fair condition. Then they might be of interest to some other organizations (Mediacom, Earthlink, Altice,etc for example). I wouldn't completely write them off just yet.

Richard8655

join:2013-02-10

Glen Ellyn, IL Richard8655 to RootWyrm

Member to RootWyrm

I think subscribers might want to have a contingency plan ready as the above is a real possibility. Making sure a decent antenna is in place that brings in all local channels might be one of them. At least until an alternative provider is identified and things settle down after a potential takeover.



bdnhsv

join:2012-01-20

Huntsville, AL bdnhsv to anobix

Member to anobix

Re: significant interest in WOW sold to Crestview



»www.waaytv.com/tech_alab ··· 017.html It looks like they might have been busy this week trying to get their network back online:



RootWyrm

join:2011-05-09 RootWyrm Member said by bdnhsv: It looks like they might have been busy this week trying to get their network back online:



»www.waaytv.com/tech_alab ··· 017.html



"sorry. someone attacked our network and we don't know but it broke a bunch of stuff"



Literally 10 minutes later:



"NO NOBODY ATTACKED US OR IS ATTACKING US, YOU IMAGINED US SAYING THAT. WE ARE TOTALLY IN CONTROL AND DO NOT APOLOGIZE." Man, this is just so very much the perfect description of modern WOW."sorry. someone attacked our network and we don't know but it broke a bunch of stuff"Literally 10 minutes later:"NO NOBODY ATTACKED US OR IS ATTACKING US, YOU IMAGINED US SAYING THAT. WE ARE TOTALLY IN CONTROL AND DO NOT APOLOGIZE."

ray2

join:2004-01-15

Des Plaines, IL ray2 Member well see i think can be good if people would just give them a chance befor ripping on them i dotn see any one leaving that mean would need to higher all new people and make more money to pay the new people caust them more than to keep who thay got also hope WOW Employees' sticky comes back here



bdnhsv

join:2012-01-20

Huntsville, AL bdnhsv Member Ray - it doesn't appear that continuing to do what they have been doing is going to be a viable option for them long term - if they keep doing exactly what they have been then they will probably be out of business in the forseeable future. Therefore, they have to make some changes, and they have started with this new investment from Crestview. Crestview likewise has stipulated that they want control if they are going to invest in wow. There will almost certainly be some changes - people, processes, service offerings, prices, etc. We'll all just have to wait and see what the changes are.

Richard8655

join:2013-02-10

Glen Ellyn, IL 2 recommendations Richard8655 to bdnhsv

Member to bdnhsv

I can see now why WOW senior management is so tied to divine guidance. Times are uncertain for this company.



I think it's too small in the field of big players such as Comcast, Time Warner, etc. These mega companies own networks, movie studios, etc. and are media empires. Standalone small regional cable companies can't compete and make enough profit just on cable, and the trend of cord cutting is not helping the bottom line.

baess

join:2011-01-28 1 recommendation baess Member said by Richard8655: Standalone small regional cable companies can't compete and make enough profit just on cable, and the trend of cord cutting is not helping the bottom line. Whenever I'm signing up for a Roku channel or similar where I have to use my WOW! login, I scroll through all the providers and I'm amazed at the sheer number of companies I see. Apparently the little guy is still kickin'. I assume they exist because they are in markets too small for the mega players. Sort of like how WOW! used to be.