Consolidated Deal Clears White House Foreign Ownership Review

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2024 – Federal law enforcement officials have greenlit Searchlight Capital’s bid to take Consolidated Communications private. The private equity firm announced a $3.1 billion deal to acquire the company with British Columbia Investment in October 2023.

Back in May the Federal Communications Commission, which will need to approve the deal, referred the transaction to a White House committee formalized in 2020 to advise the agency on foreign ownership issues.

The committee is composed of the Attorney General and the heads of the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security, plus advisors from other agencies.

The approval comes with more conditions than when the committee approved a major Searchlight investment in Consolidated in 2021. Extra conditions include reporting to the committee, plus DOJ and DHS generally, when records or domestic communications will be stored at a new location and a list of countries from which that information is accessed. The companies also agreed to undergo third-party compliance audits at the agencies’ discretion.