In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Altice Chief Executive Patrick Drahi said that his vision was to take bundled cable services – so-called quadruple play offers because the bundles include TV, mobile, fixed telephone lines and high-speed broadband – to the US, where such deals don’t exist on a large scale.
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With Cablevision’s 3.1 million customers, foreign-owned Altice would suddenly become one of the biggest cable providers in the U.S.
Altice and Cablevision could not be reached for comment. (CVC) for about $17.7 billion, including debt. Charter later outbid Altice for Time Warner Cable. It’s controlled by Charles and James Dolan and their families.
Under the terms of the deal, Altice will pay a 22 percent premium over Cablevision’s closing price Wednesday.
Amy Yong, an analyst at Macquarie Group, told USA TODAY earlier this month that Cablevision was widely seen as an attractive acquisition target and analysts and investors were expecting an imminent deal. But Cablevision and Suddenlink still would leave Altice “subscale” nationally compared to giants led by Comcast and Charter. The company has built a reputation for aggressive deal making and cost-cutting. The shares were little changed in regular trading in New York.
Cablevision faces intense competition from Verizon’s FiOS.
That’s why MoffettNathanson Research’s Craig Moffett was skeptical about the odds for a sale.
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A Cablevision-Altice alliance continues the wave of consolidation in pay TV. Regulators recently approved AT&T’s $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV. The company is controlled by the Dolan family, which has deep roots in the New York area with holdings that range from the New York Knicks and New York Rangers sports teams to Madison Square Garden to the AMC Networks cable group.
