The Deal Behind the Buyouts: Oak Hill's Baker on MetroNet Investment, Fiber's S-Curve
Aug 21, 2025
Scott Baker, managing partner at Oak Hill Capital, provides intriguing insights into the firm's significant 11-year investment in Metronet, a pioneer in fiber-to-home technology. He shares how Metronet scaled from 60,000 to millions of households through organic growth and operational efficiency. Scott discusses the economics of building versus buying fiber networks, and the impact of strategic buyers in the market. He also forecasts the future of fiber investments and the ongoing evolution of the industry as they approach later S-curve stages.
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Long Courtship With Founders
- Oak Hill courted the Sonali family for four years before investing in Metronet to prove the business could scale.
- Personal gestures early on, like sending flowers when Scott's child was born, built trust between Oak Hill and the founders.
Prefer Organic Builds Over Expensive Acquisitions
- Build networks organically when metrics are right because construction can be cheaper than acquisitions.
- Target builds at four to six times EBITDA to achieve better entry multiples than buying assets.
Fiber Growth Follows An S-Curve
- Fiber-to-the-home followed an S-curve: proof of concept, proof of execution, rapid scaling, then stabilization.
- Investor sentiment (greed and fear) overlaid that S-curve and amplified funding cycles.