Cox Deal Excites Riverstone

With its Excite@Home customers on the brink of disconnection, Cox Communications (COX Quote) tapped Riverstone (RSTN Quote) Wednesday to help build its own city-to-city broadband network and supplant the loss of its partner's services.

Riverstone says it agreed to provide edge routers for a 28-city upgrade of Cox's cable broadband infrastructure. Terms weren't disclosed, but observers put the value of the deal in the multimillion-dollar range. Both Cisco (CSCO Quote) and ADC Telecommunications (ADCT Quote) also got part of the Cox business.

Some 4.1 million Excite@Home cable modem service subscribers are in jeopardy of losing their high-speed Net connections if the company, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, cannot strike new agreements with its cable partners AT&T (T Quote), Cox and Comcast (CMCSK Quote). ...