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Jeff Lackey’s “opportunity to build something” comment was his rationale for CBTS’s sale to TowerBrook: he believed the private-equity firm could make the enterprise IT services company a primary focus, supply capital for growth and acquisitions, and help it respond to changes such as AI. TowerBrook and CBTS announced the deal in February 2024 and its completion in December 2024. Those facts establish a change in ownership—not that Lackey’s growth plans were achieved.
What changed when TowerBrook bought CBTS?
TowerBrook agreed to acquire CBTS from altafiber, and the parties announced the agreement on February 8, 2024. CBTS announced that the acquisition was complete on December 2, 2024. In May 2025, CBTS said it was wholly owned by TowerBrook. The agreement and completed transaction are distinct milestones: the February announcement said the deal remained subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period.
CBTS provides enterprise IT services, including application modernization, cybersecurity, IT consulting, cloud, unified communications and infrastructure solutions. The transaction separated that services business from altafiber, whose investment focus was fiber infrastructure. The SEC filing describes the transaction scope, while the parties’ announcement outlines CBTS’s business and customer base. TowerBrook’s February 2024 announcement · SEC filing · CBTS’s completion announcement
Why did Lackey call it an opportunity?
In a 2024 interview with CRN, Jeff Lackey, then CBTS president and CEO, described a strategic mismatch: altafiber’s long-term investment in fiber infrastructure did not fit as closely with CBTS’s service-oriented enterprise IT model. He said TowerBrook could make CBTS its primary focus. His argument was that dedicated ownership and capital could support expansion and mergers and acquisitions (M&A)—not that a particular result was guaranteed.
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“The partnership with TowerBrook was exciting because they could make us their primary focus,” Lackey told CRN. He said capital and commitment could help CBTS pursue M&A and accelerate growth as AI changed the industry, calling the prospect “an opportunity to build something that we believe has significant potential.” This was management’s explanation for the transaction, not an independent assessment of its eventual performance. CRN’s interview with Lackey
What growth plans did CBTS describe?
Lackey presented AI as a strategic priority, saying CBTS was developing ways to help customers consume AI technologies. He also identified public cloud, security, digital transformation, acquisitions to add capabilities and geographic expansion as areas of potential growth. These were plans and priorities described in the 2024 interview; the cited announcements do not establish that CBTS later completed the contemplated expansion.
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Acquisitions and hiring were projections
Lackey estimated CBTS might make two to three acquisitions over the following couple of years. He also discussed possible workforce growth of 10 to 20 percent, but made that conditional on future acquisitions and business needs. Neither figure should be read as a completed acquisition count or confirmed hiring increase.
Scale at the time of the deal
The February 2024 announcement described CBTS as serving more than 3,000 customers and having more than 2,200 employees, plus 2,000 contractors on active engagements drawn from a global network of more than 40,000 contractors. These are figures reported by TowerBrook and altafiber in their announcement, not independently verified current totals. Transaction announcement and company figures
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What is known about the deal terms?
The CRN interview said the deal terms were not disclosed. It did not provide a purchase price or valuation, so neither can be stated from the available transaction information. The central disclosed rationale was strategic: a dedicated owner and investment to pursue growth in CBTS’s service business.
Who leads CBTS now?
Lackey was CEO when CRN interviewed him in 2024, but he should not be described as the company’s current CEO on that basis. CBTS announced Kristin Russell as its new CEO on May 13, 2025, and said the company was wholly owned by TowerBrook. The December 2024 completion announcement also named Abidali Neemuchwala as chair of the new board and listed Rick Snyder and Jerry Leamon among its directors. CBTS’s May 2025 CEO announcement · CBTS’s December 2024 board announcement
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What the acquisition does—and does not—tell customers
The ownership change placed CBTS under a private-equity owner that, according to Lackey, could focus capital and attention on the IT services business. TowerBrook managing director Walter Weil said after closing that TowerBrook looked forward to investing in CBTS’s service offerings in areas including digital transformation, data analytics and AI, while emphasizing customer experience. That statement expresses the owner’s intent; the transaction announcements do not quantify changes to customer contracts, service levels or pricing.
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