Isle firm
attracts $50 million
investment

Digital Island says the cash
will help the company grow

Star-Bulletin staff

A blue-chip investor group has provided Honolulu-based Digital Island Inc. with $50 million in private equity funding that the provider of worldwide electronic business solutions said will enable it to grow faster.

The new investors are Chase Capital Partners, Arbor Investors LLC and Merrill Lynch KECALP LP 1997, said T.L. Thompson, chief financial officer of Digital Island. The company runs its own global e-business network that bypasses congestion on the public Internet.

The privately owned company was founded in California in 1995 by its chairman, Ron Higgins, and his partners. It moved to Honolulu in 1996.

The company's private data-transport service covers the United States and 15 other countries.

A number of private investment partnerships are already part owners, including one in Hawaii, HMS Investments. However, the investment announced today is its biggest, the company said. Shahan Soghikian, general partner of Chase Capital Partners, will join Digital Island's board of directors.

Alf Abuhajleh, a Digital Island spokesman, said the company could go public with an initial public offering within 18 months but he declined to estimate how much capital might be raised by that method.