Intrado sells safety business to Stonepeak for $2.4 billion

Intrado, a longtime key player in the 911 industry, has sold its safety business to the Stonepeak investment firm for $2.4 billion, but Intrado will retain its Digital Workflows unit, according to a press release issued yesterday.

For more than four decades, Intrado Safety has played a crucial role in delivering 911 calls from citizens to public-safety answering points (PSAPs)—a role it is expected to continue to play under the ownership of Stonepeak, according to Intrado President and CEO John Shlonsky.

“I am pleased that the Safety team will continue to advance their vision as part of the Stonepeak portfolio, benefitting from their experience and success in investing in a wide range of digital infrastructure companies over the past decade,” Shlonsky said in a prepared statement. “I remain excited about Intrado’s future, given Digital Workflows, Notified, and Mosaicx are industry leaders in each market they serve.”

Darrin Reilly, president and CEO of public-safety consulting firm Mission Critical Partners, said he does not believe that Stonepeak’s ownership will have a significant on public-safety answering points (PSAPs) in the near term.

“If [PSAPs] feel any change, I think it will be at least six to 12 months before they would feel it,” Reilly said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications.

Stonepeak’s investment should be a positive financial development for Intrado’s 911 business, according to Reilly.

“I think it’s good,” Reilly said. “It’s obviously a legacy firm that’s been around for years. Now, you’re going to have another firm that’s bought into—figuratively and literally—their future growth, and I’m sure that they’re going to support [Intrado]. At the end of the day, it’s just a shift of a future capital partner at the most basic form.

“But from a client standpoint, … it’s kind of like if you refinance your house. You go from one bank to another, and someone else is supporting you, in terms of who is your financial backer.”

New York-headquartered Stonepeak is “a leading alternative investment firm specializing in infrastructure and real assets” that manages about $51.7 billion in assets, according to a company press release.

Through the purchase of the Intrado Safety business—a deal that is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023—Stonepeak is acquiring a standards-based network that serves 3.1 million wireless sites, 2.5 billion telephone numbers, 13,600 PSAP seats, as well as an extensive cloud and datacenter footprint across the U.S. and Canada, the company press release states.

“Intrado’s Safety business represents an attractive opportunity to invest behind critical telecommunications infrastructure that underpins access to 911, a public good in the U.S., through its extremely high-quality network, central positioning within the emergency response chain, and long-term customer relationships,” Stonepeak Senior Managing Director James Wyper said in a prepared statement.

“We are keen to support the next phase of important work Intrado’s experienced Safety team is undertaking to further enhance and grow this backbone infrastructure that helps keep employees, customers, students, and communities safe.”

Stonepeak declined a request for an interview from IWCE’s Urgent Communications to get more information about the company’s plans for the Intrado Safety business. This is typical for companies that announce acquisitions that have not yet closed and require regulatory and other approvals.