Cogeco Cable buying Atlantic Broadband to expand in U.S.

Cogeco cable has agreed to buy Atlantic Broadband for $1.36 billion, letting it expand into the U.S. after a failed attempt to gain a foothold in Europe.
Cogeco is purchasing the company from private-equity firms Abry Partners and Oak Hill Capital Partners in a deal that’s expected to be completed by year-end, the Canadian company said today in a statement. Quincy, Massachusetts-based Atlantic Broadband operates cable systems in Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland, Delaware and South Carolina.
 For Cogeco, today’s deal raises investor concerns that the company is making another risky international gamble, sending the shares down as much as 17 percent. Cogeco is pushing into the U.S. after abandoning the struggling European market, where it wrote off the value of its Portuguese acquisition Cabovisao- Televisao por Cabo SA and lost $248 million last year.