Greencastle implements a proven methodology framework for the efficient and seamless handling of large scale mergers and acquisitions.
Comcast and Time Warner Cable announced that they had reached a definitive agreement to acquire all of the assets from the Adelphia Communication Corporation on April 21, 2005. Completed by July 31, 2006, this deal significantly broadened their cable footprint while also improving their geographic clusters of subscribers. In addition, Time Warner Cable redeemed all of Comcast’s interest in their own company, which totaled 21%.
Among the intricacies of the merger was the challenge for the Comcast Government Affairs Team to obtain consent from 95% of the Local Franchise Authorities by March 31, 2006, and to manage the communications, education, and activities of the Adelphia – Time Warner Cable deal in order to facilitate its timely closure.
Greencastle was tasked with ensuring that the Government Affairs Team remained continually on track during the transition. This task required the development of a process for transitioning the Government Affairs Team into an Integration Team. Greencastle accomplished this by creating a Work Breakdown Structure to help guide the Government Affairs Team efficiently toward the milestones necessary to achieve this objective.
Greencastle identified numerous key tasks to meet the objective. For instance, it facilitated the development of key project documentation, including a project charter, project plan, and a project schedule to help define the project and its scope. Greencastle also implemented project controls, such as action and issue tracking, assisting in assigning and ensuring accountability, helping to prioritize and resolve issues, and making actionable and time effective decisions based on insightful, real time analysis.
Additional tasks included creating team roles and responsibilities to assist with communication and relationship management among all stakeholders. This facilitated the development of a communications plan and a constituent contact process. In addition, Greencastle created a Local Franchise Authority relationship management process. Furthermore, it developed a high level synchronization matrix for stakeholder transition activities and facilitated status and integration meetings to help keep all stakeholders informed.
At project close, Greencastle completed a formalized transition process which included a defined closeout checklist, a transition plan for the internal team, a baseline process for future Government Affairs transitions, and a method with which to incorporate lessons learned into the development and implementation for mergers and acquisitions.
Greencastle’s thorough methodology during this transition resulted in receipt of the required 95% of Local Franchise Authority consent by the deadline of March 31, 2006. In addition, the clear cut transition from Government Affairs Team to an Integration Team left no major issues unresolved. Most importantly, a documented merger process was created to guide and support future acquisitions. Overall, all projects and workloads associated with this merger were accomplished successfully and on schedule.
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