Full Channel sold to St. Louis broadband acquisition company
Rhode Island’s only independent broadband provider is no longer family-owned.
Full Channel Inc., founded in Warren 52 years ago by the late John Donofrio Jr., has been sold to a broadband acquisition and management company based in St. Louis, MO, and Seaport Capital, a New York-based private equity company. The sale of the cable, Internet and telephone provider must be approved by the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission, but Full Channel’s outgoing president, Levi Maaia, said he expects the deal to be approved by the PUC over the next several months.
The acquisition marks the end of the Donofrio family’s ownership over the independent company. On Friday, Mr. Maaia said the decision to walk away was not easy, but financial realities made the choice clear as the pace of the cable and Internet business “requires that you bring economies of scale and capital to the table” that would have been difficult for the family to sustain.
“The infusion of capital that this can bring will allow Full Channel to remain competitive. We had other options and this seemed like the best one,” he said. “It’s been a challenging experience emotionally, and it’s bittersweet in that regard. But for us when we were considering this, we hope people recognize that this is a good news story.”
Mr. Maai and his mother Linda, Mr. Donofrio’s daughter, took over the business after the sudden passing of Mr. Donofrio in 2004. Two years prior to that, when Cox Communications added infrastructure in the area and became a real competitor, industry experts predicted that the family-owned provider would not be able to continue long in the face of deep-pocketed national competition. But based largely on the fierce loyalty of its local customers in Barrington, Bristol and Warren, he said, the family firm continued to thrive.
“Loyalty is really what’s kept us in business,” Mr. Maaia said. “It’s the reality that if you need something, our office is no more than 10 minutes away. When you call someone for help, that person is your neighbor.”
From that respect, Mr. Maaia said, customers will likely not see any changes, he believes. All 20 employees will keep their jobs and the Warren office will remain open. Though he doesn’t know what will happen on the business end once the sale is finalized, Mr. Maaia also added that he expects that Full Channel’s pricing will remain similar to what it is now:
“There’s always going to be pricing changes,” he said. “But I’m certain that Countrywide is going to want to remain competitive. At this point I don’t know about any changes that are coming, but you always want to remain competitive.”
Mr. Maaia and his mother told Full Channel’s staff about the upcoming sale Tuesday morning. And while he reiterated that the last several months of negotiations have been bittersweet, he believes the company’s mission will remain under the new ownership:
“It was important for my mom and for I to make sure that this company continued,” he said. “The team at Countrywide shares a lot of the core values that we did, and that was a big consideration.”
Said incoming general manager Mike Whitaker in a statement:
“We look forward to providing Full Channel’s customers the same great local service they’ve grown to expect from Full Channel, as well as enhance our service offerings, such as dramatically increasing our internet access speeds in the near future. We believe the East Bay presents tremendous opportunities to grow Full Channel’s business and services.
