Blackstone Gobbles Up Vivint
Greentech Media
Vivint, one of the country’s biggest home alarm system companies that’s been branching out into offering their customers solar power financing and services, is being acquired for more than $2 billion by The Blackstone Group, according to the companies. Consider it another big investment in the growing third-party residential rooftop solar.
Under the terms of the deal announced Wednesday, Vivint investors Goldman Sachs, Jupiter Partners and Peterson Partners will sell their shares in the company to give Blackstone more than 50 percent control of the private equity- backed company. That includes Vivint Solar, the Provo, Utah-based company’s third-party solar business, as well as 2Gig Technologies, a home device maker which is partly owned by Vivint executives.
Vivint switched its name from APX in 2011 after a $565 million senior debt financing from previous equity investor Goldman Sachs, and has about 675,000 customers of its home security and automation services across the country. As for its solar efforts, it started them in New Jersey and Massachusetts last year and expanded to Hawaii in May. In July, it branched out into California, where third-party solar pioneers such such as SolarCity, Sungevity and SunRun have brought more than half of the residential rooftop solar in the state under the third-party ownership model.
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