#private-equity-investment

#private-equity-investment

Google Fiber, now just GFiber, will merge with Stonepeak's Astound Broadband to create a new network provider. Stonepeak will hold a majority ownership stake, while the existing GFiber executive team will run the company. According to the pair, the move gives GFiber the external capital and necessary focus to drive its next phase of expansion, allowing it to buildout its fiber footprint across the US.

HighPost Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Jeff Bezos's half-brother Mark Bezos, has invested £7.3 million (US$9.9 million) in UK-based chain WatchHouse as the company prepares for U.S. expansion. According to initial reporting from The Times of London, the $9.9 million is part of a Series B round worth $14.8 million. HighPost Capital, which is based in the U.S., said it led the round in December 2025.

A leader of a company gathering steam as a data and artificial intelligence provider to the Defense Department has been arrested for allegedly soliciting an underage girl for sex. Eric T. Gillespie, the founder and chairman of Govini, has been charged as part of a sting operation by the Pennsylvania attorney general's office and the Lebanon County, Pennsylvania district attorney's office.

The acquisition advances a strategy outlined when European growth investor Verdane took a majority stake in Cropster in October 2024, signaling an intent to expand internationally through mergers and acquisitions. Cropster has not publicly disclosed the financial terms of the Firescope acquisition, but a company announcement today said further acquisitions are planned as Cropster deploys a "sizable war chest" from Verdane.