Forest Park In St. Louis, Missouri
Forest Park In St. Louis, Missouri

TSCP, Charterhouse and Cequel III Acquire Colo4

St. Louis, MO (July 1, 2010)

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Thompson Street Capital Partners (“Thompson Street”) and Charterhouse Group, Inc. (“Charterhouse”) have announced their acquisition of Colo4, LLC (“Colo4”) in partnership with Cequel III, a St. Louis-based management and investment firm led by Jerry Kent and Howard Wood.

Colo4 is a leading provider of carrier-neutral colocation data center services. With a 68,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art data center in Dallas, the Company is dedicated to protecting, connecting and powering its customer’s critical information assets. Since 2000, global enterprises, financial institutions, health care organizations, leading Web content providers, and other organizations around the globe have trusted Colo4 as their strategic data center partner.

Thompson Street is a St. Louis-based private equity group focused on acquisitions of niche leaders in various industries. Charterhouse is a New York-based private equity firm that has backed entrepreneurs and supported growing middle-market companies since 1973. Charterhouse has collaborated with Cequel III executives on several successful investments in the past including Charter Communications and AAT Communications, which were successful build-ups in the cable and wireless tower markets, respectively.

Paul Estes of Cequel III has been named the Company’s President and CEO and will work closely with the existing management team at Colo4. Estes said: “We anticipate great growth opportunities in this business, as more and more companies are looking for the type of unrivaled support that Colo4 offers to maintain its customers’ mission-critical information systems.”

Jim Cooper, Managing Principal of Thompson Street Capital, added: “We are excited about partnering with Cequel III and Charterhouse to acquire Colo4. The data center industry should continue to benefit from the explosive growth in demand for broadband Internet services.”

Thomas C. Dircks, Managing Partner at Charterhouse, stated: “This will be our fifth investment with the team at Cequel III, a partnership that has produced outstanding results for our firm and its investors. It is also a great example of how we work with our entrepreneur network to source attractive portfolio companies and build them into stronger enterprises by combining strategic, managerial, operational and financial expertise. We are very excited about this next chapter with Cequel III as well as the opportunity to work with the Thompson Street Capital team.”

Commenting on the partnership, Jerry Kent CEO of Cequel III, said: “We’re very pleased to have this opportunity to work with St. Louis-based Thompson Street and again collaborate with our colleagues at Charterhouse, with whom we have been partners for more than 25 years. We look forward to growing Cequel Data Centers through additional acquisitions with these high-quality firms.”

About Charterhouse Group:
Charterhouse Group, Inc. is a New York-based private equity firm with over three and a half decades of experience in building leading middle-market companies. Established in 1973, Charterhouse has invested in excess of $2.0 billion in equity and established over 100 platform companies with a focus in the Business Services, Healthcare Services and Consumer Products and Services sectors. For more information on Charterhouse, please visit www.charterhousegroup.com.

About Cequel III:
Cequel III is a St. Louis-based investment and management firm, established in January 2002 by partners Jerry Kent, Howard Wood, and Dan Bergstein. Since then, the Cequel III team has been involved with a number of companies, including Suddenlink Communications (cable broadband systems), Cequel Sites (wireless towers and services), and previously, AAT Communications Corp. (wireless towers).

About Colo4:
Colo4 is a leading provider of carrier-neutral colocation data center services in Dallas, with a 68,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art data center equipped with highly redundant power supplies, environmental controls, and other critical infrastructure service and support. The Company offers high-end technical capabilities and unrivaled support to maintain its customers’ mission-critical information systems.