Communications
Cedar Grove Investments, LLC
principals have extensive backgrounds in the burgeoning
communications industry, having served in operational,
managerial, legal, M&A-related and board capacities at
McCaw Cellular/AT&T Wireless (T), Nextlink
Communications (NXLK) and Nextel Communications (NXTL).
The experience and contacts gained in those roles
have led to investments and board involvement in numerous
companies, each with a unique focus, in the increasingly
competitive telecommunications arena. Cedar Grove principals are investors in and board members to
Telecorp PCS, Inc. (TLCP) and Triton PCS, Inc. (TPCS),
both PCS operators in the southeastern US and affiliates of
AT&T Wireless Services.
Cedar Grove invested in edge2net (formerly Global
Connect Partners), an aggregator of international
long-distance traffic which is developing to exploit the
coming conversion to Voice over IP, and in Cricket
Communications, a subsidiary of Leap Wireless (LWIN), which
provides limited mobility, local wireless telephone services
in competition with local wireline providers.
Cedar Grove also invested in Pangea, Ltd., a
fiber-optic company serving northern Europe, and EPOCH
Internet, a tier-1 ISP.
Most of
Cedar Grove’s communications investments provide
infrastructure or services to the rapidly-growing but
intensely competitive wireless industry, in keeping with our
strategic view that eroding margins and intense competition
in the communications industry will reward companies who can
help carriers sharpen their focus, minimize their expenses
and increase their grade of service.
Cedar Grove principals were early investors in, and
provided strategic guidance to, Wireless Facilities, Inc. (WFII),
a leader in outsourcing of wireless engineering and
construction services, and in Tegic Communications, Inc.,
the provider of T9 text-input technology, which recently
merged into America OnLine (AOL).
We seeded Telephia,
Inc., a provider of syndicated network-based
competitive marketing information, and Sierra Towers, which
is poised to exploit the market for communications tower
services in the enormous Mexican market.
Other investments include Point Communications, a
web-based master agent for wireless carriers; Xypoint, Inc.,
an E-911 services company which is becoming a leader in the
exploding area of wireless web access and services; and
Metawave, a manufacturer of capacity-enhancing smart
antennae for wireless carriers.
Recent
investments include Invertix, a provider of specialized
quality-of-service test equipment for wireless and other
providers, Novazen, a provider of web-based billing
services, and Integrex, a high-quality contract manufacturer
for high-tech devices.
We intend to continue our focus on carriers with
unique characteristics and companies which can facilitate
increased competitiveness and efficiency of wireless and
other next-generation telecommunications carriers.
View
our portfolio of communications companies.
