Bankrupt Tilson Technology Management has sold its $200 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against Gigapower — the AT&T and BlackRock-backed open-access fiber venture — to Winston I LLC, a Delaware-registered entity that now assumes control of the litigation, according to a Purchase Agreement filed in Tilson’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. The price and financial terms were not disclosed in the publicly available filing.
A contractor’s legal battle turned a tradable asset
Tilson’s lawsuit alleges Gigapower failed to pay for substantial network design and construction services after awarding the company significant broadband buildout work during early phases of its expansion. Gigapower has rejected claims of wrongdoing.
By selling the lawsuit, Tilson monetizes what had become a costly legal fight — while transferring both the risk and potential upside to a buyer whose sole objective now appears to be maximizing recovery.
The purchaser, Winston 1 LLC, lists its registered address as 251 Little Falls Drive, Wilmington, Delaware — a location associated with Corporation Service Company (CSC), a major registered agent service used by many U.S. business entities. The filing does not identify the company’s principals or operational base.
Stakes shift for Gigapower
With Tilson no longer involved, industry analysts say Gigapower’s negotiating leverage changes significantly.
“A litigation funding entity doesn’t need a future relationship with the defendant,” said one telecom restructuring specialist familiar with the matter. “They only need a judgment or settlement.”
The commercial dispute tied to ongoing infrastructure development has now become pure litigation — driven by financial return rather than business continuity.
The case continues to resonate across the broadband workforce and supplier sector, where rising capital pressures and delayed receivables are creating instability for builders supporting national fiber deployment goals.
“Contractors are increasingly forced to bankroll network operators,” said a prominent engineering firm executive. “When cash stops flowing on multimillion-dollar projects, the consequences come fast.”
The complaint, filed in July, alleges that Gigapower breached its contract with Tilson and refused to pay for work already completed. Tilson alleges the venture engaged in a pattern of withholding payments and creating cash flow crises in a deliberate effort to pressure the company into accepting less favorable terms.
According to the lawsuit, Tilson followed through on its commitments, building out infrastructure with the expectation that Gigapower would pay on schedule. Instead, the suit claims, Gigapower delayed or failed to pay invoices for months, resulting in more than $100 million in negative cash flow for Tilson. When Tilson refused to renegotiate rates under pressure, Gigapower abruptly terminated the contract “for convenience.”
“This misconduct caused real harm to Tilson and its employees, to the communities throughout Nevada and Arizona, and to the many skilled subcontractors who worked on the project,” the company stated in its press release.
