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The sale “serves the public interest by providing benefits of increased broadband speeds and more affordable options for low income customers,” said FCC earlier this month.
Further approvals are needed by the New York City Franchise Concession Review Committee and at the May 20 meeting of the New York Public Service Commission in Albany. Industry analysts see no problems and say the deal could close by the end of June.
Purchase of Cablevision Systems Corp., Bethpage, would put one of the largest U.S. newspapers, Newsday, in the hands of a non-U.S. company.
Altice, based in the Netherlands, employs 55,000 in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Switzerland, Israel and other countries and regions.
Cablevision Debt: $7.43 Billion
Cablevision execs have driven debt to $7.43 billion which will be taken over by Altice. One of the first moves of Drahi will be close assessment of 300 executives who make more than $300K. Cablevision employs 13,656 full-time and 800 part-time.
Newsday, with about 420,000 circulation, has had operating losses of $135 million since 2013--$71.1M in 2013, $37.7M in 2014, and $27.2M in 2015. About half its workforce of 1,600 is in the Teamsters Union.
Analysts are speculating that Newsday could be sold or turned into an online medium.
Mike LaSpina, local union president, told the Long Island Press that he did not think the paper would be sold. He said recent moves of Altice in Europe indicate that Newsday and the News 12 network of seven stations could serve a strategic purpose of Altice since it is pursuing “content packaging.”
He said high paid executives at Cablevision have something to worry about.
Altice last year purchased Suddenlink Communications, St. Louis, for $9 billion. It has 1.5 million subscribers.
Unions Blast Takeover
The Financial Times said Altice buys companies with poor cash flow and slashes costs to boost profit. Net debt has increased from $1.94B in 2012 to $8.5B as of the close of fiscal 2016.
Shares are currently around $13 vs. $35.80 a year ago. It is paying $34.90 for each share of Cablevision financed by $14.5B of new and existing debt at Cablevision, cash on hand at Cablevision, and $3.3B of cash from Altice.
Dennis Trainor of Communications Workers of America told the Long Island Press that “Altice takes on too much debt, outsources as much work as possible, and then downsizes the workforce. Customers get worse service and employees lose their jobs.”
Robert Master, CWA District 1 spokesman, said the deal is “bad for cable customers and bad for cable workers and should be rejected.” The Fair Media Council of Long Island has also expressed disapproval.
Execs Worked for Cablevision, MSG
Some executives of CSC in past years also worked for subsidiary Madison Square Garden, owners of the Knicks and Rangers, which was spun off in 2010. MSG has no debt while CSC debt is $7.43B.
Pay of CSC execs in 2014 included $23,702,403 for CEO James Dolan, who was also paid $3.09M in the same year as executive chairman of MSG Co. His father, Charles Dolan, chairman of CSC, was paid $15,347,097 in 2014.
Gregg Selbert, vice chairman, was paid $14,032,940; Brian Sweeney, president and CFO, $7,009,589, and Kristin Dolan, COO, daughter-in-law of Charles Dolan, $7,391,705.
Five other Dolan children and three other relatives were on the CSC payroll in 2010, reported footnoted.com, which examined Securities & Exchange Commission filings.
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