Cablevision Sold to French Company Altice for $17.7 Billion Cablevision has been sold to French company Altice in a cash and debt deal worth $17.7 billion. Altice, run by French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, has long been planning a major expansion into the United States, already striking a $9.1 billion deal for Suddenlink Communications this past spring. The deal creates the fourth largest cable operator in the country with about 4.6 million video customers.

An SEC filing (pdf) indicates that Altice will pay Cablevision $560 million if the deal isn't completed. "Since Charles Dolan founded Cablevision in 1973, the Dolan family has been honored to help shepherd our customers and employees through the most extraordinary communications revolution in modern history,” James Dolan said in a statement. “Now, nearly half a century later, the time is right for new ownership of Cablevision and its considerable assets. We believe that Patrick Drahi and Altice will be truly worthy successors, and we look forward to doing all we can to affect this transition for our customers and employees. We expect that Cablevision will be in excellent hands.” Rumors that Cablevision was slowly but surely positioning itself for a sale have been around for years. But those rumors accelerated over the last year as a slew of Cablevision executives jumped ship, and the company -- once on the cutting edge of broadband service and speed -- effectively kept itself in a holding pattern when it came to new speeds and services. But Cablevision-owner James Dolan appears to have been holding out for a suitor willing to meet Cablevision's relatively steep price tag. Altice was a potential suitor of Time Warner Cable, but found itself outspent by both Comcast and Charter. The company has also been mentioned as a possible buyer for Verizon's unwanted fixed-line networks, though that would create obvious problems with discordant technology. “We are very excited about our acquisition of Cablevision, which has developed into a pre-eminent cable operator under the steady, long-term ownership of the Dolan Family,” Altice CEO Dexter Goei said in a statement. “This acquisition, our second in the cable sector in the US, is the next step in Altice’s long-term oriented strategy in the US, one of the largest and fastest growing communications markets in the world." Altice's $17.7 billion acquisition of Cablevision is expected to close sometime in the first half of 2016. Altice's $17.7 billion acquisition of Cablevision is expected to close sometime in the first half of 2016.







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Most recommended from 64 comments

slow_move

join:2012-07-20

Coram, NY 4 recommendations slow_move Member now I know why I was wondering why cablevision went from leading on internet products to falling far behind. Management was busy looking for a buyer and was not able to keep their product up to date at the same time. I was wondering if their internet product was going to become as bad as what TWC offers. tmc8080

join:2004-04-24

Brooklyn, NY 1 edit 2 recommendations tmc8080 Member cashing out, and the future The Dolans cashed out at a GOOD time.. regulators are not interested in an antitrust fight, cord cutting is getting its first mainstream attention (video reveues falling), docsis 3.1 is going to be an expensive upgrade, the sports business is having more boom bust cycles that any point in history....



Add to that the "FAMILY" did not want to be in the CABLE business for quite some time... and have privately, if not publically made that known for more than a decade. Billions of dollars are enough for dozens of the family generations to prosper on.. for maybe 3 million metro Ny customers plus a few here and there outside the large foorprint.



At least I hope some GOOD can come of this with the new owners.. modernize the plant, build some good will equity with customers (raise speeds, lower prices, etc). I would like to see CV be a fttp company.. if this company wants to head in that direction to an ALL modern IP network, SO BE IT.. it would be a HUGE signal to Verizon that they won't be the only FTTP kids on the block anymore which can offer symmetrical bandwidth AND compete on price with none of the BS collusion! Rekrul

join:2007-04-21

Milford, CT 2 recommendations Rekrul Member What does Altice do in other markets? So what does Altice do in other markets? Do they have caps? Do they have soft caps and complain when people go over a certain amount?