HSA mulls Charter buyout bid

Executives at High Speed Access (HSA) are considering a $73 million offer from Charter Communications to purchase “contracts and associated assets that serve Charter’s customers,” a Charter announcement said.

Charter, and its parent company, Vulcan Ventures, have about a 50% investment stake in HSA. The $73 million offer covers the assets that relate to the turnkey and customer service operations that HSA maintains for Charter, said Charter Spokesman Andy Holdgate.

“The first deployments that we did for Charter, we would have installed the headend equipment, the marketing, the sales, the installation, the billing for those Charter Pipeline customers,” Holdgate said. “They want to acquire the assets that include the turnkey piece that entails the equipment in the headend, the modems in the home. We have field offices. And then the technical support--both the engineering and the customer-care support.”

Much of that support is consolidated in HSA’s national customer-care facility in Louisville, Ken.

As part of the bid, three Charter officials--President/CEO Jerry Kent, Senior Vice President-Corporate Development/Technology, Steve Silva; and Director William Savoy resigned from HSA’s board of directors.

“It’s something that people here have been discussing and thinking about,” said Charter Spokesman Andy Morgan. “We want to ensure that our customer service for these high-speed customers doesn’t get interrupted and that we continue to provide them good customer service, both short-term and particularly long-term.”

HSA provides Internet service to about 35% of Charter’s customer base. Other Charter ISPs include Excite@Home and EarthLink, Morgan said.