Globecomm Systems Inc., a Hauppauge-based satellite communications company, has been sold to an investor group led by Manhattan-based HPS Investment Partners LLC and funds affiliated with Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, based in Santa Monica, California.
Financial terms of the sale by Globecomm’s private equity owner, Manhattan-based Wasserstein & Co., were not disclosed.
Wasserstein & Co. announced it was acquiring Globecomm for $340 million in August 2013 and took it private. Globecomm now has almost 400 employees in 10 countries, about 100 fewer than when the Wasserstein acquisition closed in December 2013.
A source close to the transaction who asked not to be identified said the new buyers do not plan to change Globecomm’s management team or move the company.
“HPS and Tennenbaum are fully supportive of Globecomm’s go-forward strategy and approach,” he said in an email.
Globecomm chief executive Jason D. Juranek said in a statement that the company is extending into new markets “to further expand our diversification strategy.”
In March 2016, Juranek became interim chief executive, succeeding CEO Keith Hall. Hall took the job after the Wasserstein acquisition and the exit of founder and CEO David Hershberg in February 2014.
Globecomm, which has a farm of satellite dishes at its headquarters, provides communications services to government, corporate, media and maritime customers in more than 100 countries. The company has facilities in Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, the Netherlands, South Africa, Germany, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan.
In 2012, Showtime Networks Inc., a subsidiary of CBS Corp., gave Globecomm a seven-year contract renewal to manage transmission and distribution of the premium network’s programming. The company also has developed telecommunications infrastructure in Afghanistan and has been pushing into the
“Internet of Things” market that connects vehicles, buildings, appliances and other objects to let them communicate and share data.
One of the buyers, HPS Investment Partners, was originally formed as a unit of Highbridge Capital Management LLC, a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, and was formerly known as Highbridge Principal Strategies LLC.
It was Highbridge Principal Strategies that supplied debt financing for Wasserstein’s acquisition of Globecomm in 2013.
Edward Horowitz, who sits on the board of Globecomm, also is the chairman and co-founder of U.S. Space LLC, a provider of satellite services to government and corporate customers, which advised Wasserstein & Co. on the sale of Globecomm.
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