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    Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company | GFiber and Astound to merge with Alphabet selling majority stake to Stonepeak
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    Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company | GFiber and Astound to merge with Alphabet selling majority stake to Stonepeak


    Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company | GFiber and Astound to merge with Alphabet selling majority stake to Stonepeak

    https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/google-fiber-will-be-sold-to-private-equity-firm-and-merge-with-cable-company/

    View 48 Comments

    48 Comments

    1. Hrmbee on

      Details of note:

      >Alphabet and Astound owner Stonepeak announced “an agreement to combine GFiber with Astound Broadband, creating a leading independent fiber provider,” with the merged company to be “majority owned by Stonepeak, an investment firm specializing in infrastructure and real assets.”
      >
      >The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions, with an expected closing date in Q4 of this year. The sale price was not disclosed. The deal will help GFiber take “a major step toward its goal of operational and financial independence” and obtain the “external capital and strategic focus needed to accelerate its next phase of growth,” the announcement said.
      >
      >It’s unclear whether the combined firm will be called GFiber, Astound, or something else. “The combined business will be led by the existing GFiber executive team, utilizing their expertise in high-speed fiber innovation to manage the combined network footprint,” the announcement said. “The combination of GFiber’s high-growth metropolitan networks with Astound’s established infrastructure, team and capabilities creates a highly complementary, national network platform.”
      >
      >…
      >
      >Astound is already the product of industry consolidation via a series of private equity deals that combined Wave Broadband, RCN, and Grande Communications. A research note from the New Street analyst firm said GFiber offers service at 2.8 million locations in 15 states, while Astound’s service area has 4.45 million locations in 12 states and the District of Columbia. Most of Astound’s network is cable broadband, but it has 892,014 fiber locations and 44,548 copper locations.
      >
      >“Put together, the two companies pass ~7.1 [million] locations in 26 states,” the research note said. “The two companies overlap in only three counties in Texas (109k locations). Texas and Illinois will have the largest footprint for the combined entity. Cable and Fiber will cover an almost equal share of locations for the combined company.”
      >
      >The combined GFiber/Astound company will face competition in most of its territory from at least one cable or fiber/copper provider. That includes AT&T at 53 percent of locations, Comcast at 46 percent of locations, Charter at 43 percent of locations, Verizon at 22 percent of locations, and Lumen (CenturyLink) at 11 percent.
      >
      >New Street said there are unanswered questions, such as whether the combined company will continue to expand into areas served by existing cable and fiber operators, and whether it will upgrade its own cable footprint with fiber.

      It’s not too surprising to see Google jettison this division. It will be interesting to see whether the new entity will be able to spark enough much-needed competition with the larger incumbents.

    4. Drewmcfalls21 on

      lol those commercials about not changing the price in 10 years are about to be outdated real quick. Just a daily reminder that private equity ruins everything.

    6. WayyyCleverer on

      Astound bought our local internet provider (good price, good performance) and turned it into garbage.

    12. Actual-Ad9840 on

      whelp at least i won’t feel bad anymore about moving out of my gfiber home, they are about to shit themselves

    14. fly19 on

      Sad, but I’m not surprised. Pretty much every cool thing Google does gets shelved, sold off, or enshittified.

      RIP, Google Fiber. I wish I’d had a chance to use you, but now I’m glad I’ll never to experience what you’ll become.

    15. redunculuspanda on

      Only a few certainties in life, death, taxes, and Google
      Killing off well used and much loved products and services.

    18. margirtakk on

      God fucking damnit. I just switched to Google Fiber, and now some rich fuckers are going to ruin it just to boost their already criminally high net worth.

    20. raptearer on

      Bummed I never got to use it, but got a good fiber alternative in my area that’s been good so far in the month I’ve had em (they’re called Ziply?), so at least I get enjoy the greatness of fiber. It’s honestly sad it’s impact on the isp industry wasn’t as great as we’d all hoped, but it’s definitely brought about the rise of smaller local fiber players, which is always good. I’m worried though I’d this will be the start of the consolidation of them all now though under old ISPs

    21. billy_digital on

      RIP google fiber. I love how the consumer is just guaranteed to be fucked over with no end in sight. What an awesome time to be alive!

    23. tacotacoburrito04 on

      Perfect timing, just switched from Quantum to GFiber last week cause I didn’t want to deal with AT&T have acquired Quantum.

    26. Ryansit on

      I don’t know why anyone would invest in any of their tech, they abandon everything they buy or build.

    27. iloovehugecock on

      Oh wow I haven’t heard of Google Fiber in years. I remember wanting it to roll out in the U.K. like 15 years ago. It was such a hot thing back then

    28. FoundersDiscount on

      Private equity are probably the two worst combination of words after pedophile president. They auck so much. The modern poison.

      Edit: more words

    29. nobody_smart on

      I’ve had Google Fiber for almost 10 years. There are alternatives for 1Gb service in my neighborhood so I’ll hop if the service goes to shit or the price is hiked unreasonably.

    30. ten_year_rebound on

      Sucks for the GFiber employees who will be losing the Google perks and now become layoff targets of a private equity firm.

    31. PJMFett on

      FUCK PRIVATE EQUITY this was the only good thing remaining living in this shit hole state

    33. MisstheSunshine on

      When RCN became Astound my internet service doubled in price and I started finding hidden “fees” every single year. I had to call them every January to try and get the fees removed until I finally found an alternative provider.  Private equity ruins everything it touches.

    37. Old_Front7166 on

      Ignoring how private equity is going to be bad for the customers – What does this say about Google right now? Why would they want to be leaving this market?

    39. Stupalski on

      >private equity firm

      Oh so they are planning to turn the product into absolute dogshit?

    40. brianwhite12 on

      When Google fiber was first announced, I was so excited and desperately hoped to be in one of the cities selected. 16 years later, I’ve lived in 4 different cities and exactly 0 have offered Google fiber. I didn’t even know they still existed, I assumed Google killed it off years ago.

    41. BreweryStoner on

      If it’s one thing corporate America has taught me after covid, it’s that mergers and acquisitions almost never end well.

    44. tankmode on

      our regional fiber provider was recently sold. price hikes before and after. lots of new hidden fees

    45. aestival on

      Google fiber has been pretty much dead in the water for growth since 2016 when Alphabet deprioritized the project. It’s also theorized that Google saw that the constraints of the lack of investment in infrastructure at ISP’s would hinder US growth potential for services like youtube, so by starting their own competing ISP they were encouraging an arms race among existing ISP’s elsewhere.

      [https://hbr.org/2018/09/why-google-fiber-is-high-speed-internets-most-successful-failure](https://hbr.org/2018/09/why-google-fiber-is-high-speed-internets-most-successful-failure)

      *Google’s own interest in fiber stemmed from a conviction that faster speeds would eventually generate more revenue and services for the broader Alphabet enterprise, making the investment justifiable if not profitable. Becoming a competitive ISP itself was a secondary aspiration.*

      *So Google went about announcing locations, and incumbent broadband ISPs, including AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable, would quickly counter by promising improved pricing, faster speeds, network upgrades or some combination of the three.*

      *…*

      *Incumbents,* [*who initially dismissed the effort*](https://archive.ph/o/yzDf8/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324731304578193390432321484) *as a publicity stunt, accelerated and reprioritized their own deployments city by city as Google announced follow-on expansion.*

    47. MephistosGhost on

      Cool. Throw another one on the pile. Google abandons everything good they happen upon.

    48. -_-0_0-_0 on

      “You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the ISPs, not join them! Bring balance to the Internet, not leave it in darkness!”