The Carlyle Group Sells Inmedia Communications to Arqiva

London, England – Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today agreed to sell Inmedia Communications to Arqiva, the transmission services company. This is the third successful exit from the Carlyle Europe Venture Partners fund.

Carlyle acquired Inmedia in April 2004 in a leveraged buyout. Inmedia is an independent broadcast and media infrastructure company primarily providing satellite uplinking and support services. It uses a combination of satellite and IP infrastructure to serve the broadcast, enterprise and carrier markets and provides services to some of the UK’s major broadcasters. The company is led by Nick Thompson, CEO and Richard Vos, Chairman.

In January 2005, with Carlyle’s support, Inmedia acquired Cable and Satellite Transmissions (Cas.t) Limited (CAST), further strengthening its customer base and capacity.

Bruno Mourgue d’Algue, Associate Director, The Carlyle Group said, "The Inmedia team, led by CEO Nick Thompson, has done an outstanding job of improving the business through increasing efficiency and profitability and expanding its business both organically and through the CAST acquisition. We believe that Arqiva is a good fit for Inmedia to develop its business further."

This is the third successful exit from the Carlyle Europe Venture Partners (CEVP) fund in a year. Carlyle sold Egencia, the online business travel service, in 2004 to IAC/InteractiveCorp and sold Apama, the real-time analytics software company to Progress Software in April 2005. The latest investment completed by the fund was the acquisition in April 2005 of Cameca, the leading French manufacturer of semiconductor metrology equipment and scientific instruments dedicated to micro- and nano-analysis.

David FitzGerald, Managing Director, The Carlyle Group said, "This is an excellent return for our investors and continues our strong track record of exiting fast-growth companies to trade buyers. Our investment portfolio is maturing well and in line with our expectations."

Carlyle was advised by Latham & Watkins, PWC for accounting and Ingenious Corporate Finance.

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