NEW YORK (AP) – European telecommunications and cable company Altice has agreed to buy New York cable operator Cablevision for $17.7 billion, including debt, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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Altice will pay $34.90 per share for Cablevision, CNBC said, citing sources.
The boards of both companies have approved the deal, which is expected to be announced on Thursday. It was unclear Wednesday as to how much sway European regulators would have over an Altice-Cablevision marriage. But shares zoomed 16% to $33.12 in trading after the market closed.
Altice had already made a move into the United States market in May when it bought 70 percent of Suddenlink Communications, the number seven USA cable company, for $9.1 billion.
The Dolan family is saying au revoir to Cablevision, selling the flagship cable company it founded more than 40 years ago to France’s telecom giant Altice, The Post has learned.
Early this month Wunderlich Securities Matthew Harrigan said that Cablevision “could be a very appealing asset” for Altice given its presence in New York, and ambitious plans to spread public WiFi services through the region.
A provider of cable television, telephone and Internet to millions of customers in the New Jersey and New York metropolitan area, the 42-year-old Bethpage, N.Y. company grew from providing cable to less than 2,000 subscribers on Long Island in the early 1970s to one of the nation’s largest telecommunications company.
Altice was also said to be interested in Time Warner Cable after Comcast’s bid fell apart. Cable has suffered from video defections as Netflix and others have thrived. The 88-year-old billionaire is chairman of Cablevision, which is run by his 60-year-old son James, the chief executive officer.
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Along the way, Drahi, who lives in Geneva, has developed a reputation for aggressive deal-making and running lean operations focused on cost management.
