So do you REALLY think this is the target? I know as you mentioned that Dan was after a LARGER company during our quiet time last year??
You can respond via Public or PM...what are your REAL thoughts here?? TIA...Rj
After $8M loss, Acworth gets rid of CableNet
Friday, November 18, 2005 3:08 AM EST, Marietta Daily Journal
By Katie Fallon,Staff Writer
ACWORTH - After a loss of roughly $8 million, Acworth has accepted a bid to sell the much-maligned cable system Acworth CableNet.
While a significant financial loss was inevitable no matter which contract Acworth decided to accept, the city's mayor and board of aldermen voted Thursday evening to accept the contract from KLiP Interactive.
With all but Post 2 Alderman Doug Allen voting in favor of Post 3 Alderman Bob Weatherford's motion to accept KLiP's proposal, a contract worth $4,952,000 was chosen to offload the municipally owned and operated cable system that originally cost the city about $13 million.
A relatively unknown company in comparison to Comcast, the rival for CableNet, KLiP is headquartered in Madison and provides interactive communications and entertainment services to both residential and business customers in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Wyoming and Montana.
"We wanted to sell the system to an operator who was focused on the smaller markets and would make customer service and state of the art technology a number one priority," said Acworth City Manager Brian Bulthuis. "We know that KLiP is working hard to upgrade smaller, underserved markets and we felt that our future plans for the Acworth system were in line with their overall strategy.
As Bulthuis reported at Thursday's meeting, the terms of KLiP's offer include $2,000 to be paid per customer to the city as of Thursday. At the time of the meeting, CableNet had 2,476 customers. With the stipulation that the purchase agreement was signed Thursday night, the contract stated a non-refundable deposit of $240,000 would be paid to the City of Acworth. With $10,000 already received, Bulthuis said the total of the non-refundable deposit was $250,000.
The contract then stipulates a closing date of Dec. 1, at which time KLiP will pay $1 million to the city. Beginning on March 1, 2006, KLiP will then begin making monthly payments of $35,000 until the purchase price is met with $420,000 being paid per calendar year.
A drawback of Comcast's contract, which was worth $4,600,000, reported at the meeting was that Comcast could reduce the value of the contract if CableNet lost subscribers after Nov. 1 that did not choose Comcast as their new provider.
Mayor Tommy Allegood said although the sale itself may not have been the biggest concern of Acworth residents, but rather the negative effects the cost of the system had on the community. He said residents had concerns about how the city would tax them after an millage increase from 7.37 mils to 7.87 mills was approved in July as the 2006 millage rate.
Allegood said, however, he was please with the board's vote.
"This is really our greatest hour because we have come up with a terrific solution," he said. "We had two really good choices tonight and we think we have a win-win situation with the decision we have made tonight so it is going to be a great thing for our
Anything UP today??
