BILLION-DOLLAR BABY: Denver-based KSL Capital Partners LLC touts itself as “a private equity fund with in excess of $1 billion in committed capital.” And it’s likely to make a splash with all that cash in the resort/leisure niche. KSL investments include La Quinta Resort & Club and PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.; Doral Golf Resort & Spa near Miami; and Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa on Maui in Wailea, Hawaii. Michael Shannon, KSL’s managing director, was president and chief executive from 1986 to 1992 of Vail Associates, the predecessor to Vail Resorts ski company. In 2004, when Vail Resorts was considering approaches from buyout firms, KSL was said to be a suitor.
ZOOMY CRUISES: Zoomy Communications, a Grand Junction-based firm, will provided a triple play of services (phone, video, Internet) for a new 15,500 home development in Biloxi, Miss., arising from Hurricane Katrina’s wreckage. Zoomy says it will be fiber-to-the-home technology. Zoomy’s founder and CEO is Diane Kruse, a telecom industry veteran who wrote the statewide telecommunications and broadband services plan for the state of Colorado.
THE KICKER: At least one reader took offense at Al Lewis’ Sunday column that cited the cost of sports programming borne by all cable and satellite TV subscribers, such as ESPN at an estimated $2.50 a month:
“A whole two dollars and fifty cents. You need to realize that most people order cable/dish specifically for the sports. I wish that 2.50 was all I had to pay. But it isn’t. The ONLY channels I want are the ESPN channels, NFL Network, and Speed. Then throw in Discovery, TLC, and History Channel. But that’s not all I get. I have to pay for a whole load…”
