Crawford Communications Inc. has inked the first-ever sale of one of its divisions in a deal likely worth more than $100 million.
Los Angeles-based media services company Broadcast Facilities Inc. acquired Crawford’s Satellite Services Division, which includes television network origination, teleport, satellite uplink trucks, Internet, production services and media services to government clients in late January.
Crawford, an Atlanta-based company founded by Jesse Crawford in 1984, was represented by King & Spalding partners John J. Kelley III and Rahul Patel. Neither returned calls seeking comment. Broadcast Facilities was represented by attorneys from Latham & Watkins.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But in a Form D Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities that is part of an 8-K that Broadcast Facilities filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company indicated that it was issuing $128 million in securities in connection with a business combination “such as a merger [or] acquisition” and as “additional consideration for the extension of credit.”
Ellis Jones, CEO of Wasserstein & Co., the private equity firm which owns Broadcast Facilities, said in a statement that financing came from Tennenbaum Capital Partners.
William Sherman, managing director of VRA Partners, an Atlanta-based investment bank which advised Crawford on the deal, said, “I think there was a strong rationale for this transaction because of the benefits available to Broadcast Facilities in combination with the satellite services division of Crawford. It gave them additional capability … and their first East Coast property.”
The combined company’s client base includes ABC, NBC Universal, DIRECTV Sports Networks, Hallmark, NFL Network, ESPN, NASCAR Media Group and government entities such as the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA and the CDC.