Highwinds Secures $205 Million in New Financing
Led by Cerberus Business Finance, LLC and Goldman Sachs BDC, Inc., an investment fund managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L.P., with participation from the company’s existing equity sponsor, General Catalyst Partners, and the company’s management t
Winter Park, Fla.(08 Aug 2013)
Highwinds® today announced that it has closed a new $205 million debt financing transaction with Cerberus Business Finance, LLC and Goldman Sachs BDC, Inc., an investment fund managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L.P., including follow-on investment from General Catalyst Partners serving as private equity sponsor. This significant infusion of new capital is among the largest single transactions ever closed by a content delivery network (CDN) provider. It has resulted in the recapitalization of the business, and it positions Highwinds for aggressive growth through both organic and M&A investment opportunities, including further expansion of its global content delivery platform.
“Highwinds has tremendous financial strength, with positive cash flow, a strong balance sheet and sustained profitability. They also have proven technological innovation, an impressive customer roster, a brilliant, thoroughly vested executive team, and demonstrated success in supporting the shift to online digital entertainment, which is now a global cultural phenomenon,” said Kevin Cross, managing director, lending, for Cerberus. “These factors make Highwinds a great investment for us, and we are pleased to be able to fund their next stage of growth.”
Highwinds consistently ranks among the world’s three highest performing CDNs, as evidenced by the fast response times and high throughput rates reported by third-party testing tools. Highwinds’ network comprises dozens of data centers spanning five continents, a massive peering infrastructure, egress capacity in excess of 4 Tbps, and breakthrough technologies that fuel highly efficient operations, unmatched content control and low delivery costs. Its content delivery and cloud services portfolio is trusted by leading gaming, advertising, software, and media and entertainment companies for the delivery of digital assets to millions of global users every day.
“Highwinds continues to provide excellent service and support for its CDN customers, and this, together with management’s focus, has allowed us to grow profitably year-over-year. I am excited to align ourselves with partners who will help finance our vision and execute our mission,” said Steve Miller, founder and CEO of Highwinds, who was responsible for launching the company in 2002 and has now orchestrated over $420 million in total new financing since inception. “Our lofty ambitions have become a reality time and again because we’ve never wavered in our commitment to customers, and because we’ve had great financial partners along the way. We’ve made a monumental move here to secure financing that will further fuel our growth.”
Highwinds’ growth plans include increasing investment across all functional areas of the business, including sales, business development, product, marketing and operations, as well as executing on strategic M&A opportunities.
Company Profile
Founded in 2002
Headquartered in Winter Park, Fla.
Offices in Phoenix, Amsterdam and São Paulo, Brazil
149 Employees
$205 Million Raised in Current Round of Debt Financing
$420 Million Raised Since 2006 (Equity and Debt Financing)
Network PoPs on Five Continents
Egress Capacity in Excess of 4 Tbps
Owns Several Brands
- RollingThunder® Network, Launched in 2007
- Highwinds® CDN, Launched in 2007
- StrikeTracker® Content Management and Analytics Portal, Launched in 2007
- Highwinds GDN™ (Game Delivery Network™), Launched in 2011
- HCS™ (Highwinds Cloud Storage), Launched in 2013
Learn more about Highwinds at www.highwinds.com.
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Highwinds, Game Delivery Network, GDN, HCS, RollingThunder and StrikeTracker are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Highwinds Network Group, Inc.