European telecommunications giant Altice has agreed to purchase New York cable provider Cablevision for $17.7 billion.
Cablevision is the nation’s fourth-largest cable operator and has been a pioneer and a pillar of the cable business since its foundation in 1973. In contrast, the larger players such as DirecTV have 20.3 million and Time Warner Cable 11 million.
Drahi is worth $15.4 billion, according to Forbes, which makes him the richest person in Israel and the third richest in France.
The company said it expects the deal to close in the first half of 2016, once regulators have the chance to review and approve it.
It is still not known if Altice will seek opportunities for upgrades in technology for Cablevision, which has had serious competition that past few years from Verizon television offerings and fiber optic broadband Internet.
However, the deal does not include other Dolan-controlled companies like the Madison Square Garden Company, the New York Knicks basketball team, the New York Rangers hockey team and cable channel firm AMC Networks.
“The acquisition of Cablevision represents Altice’s next step in the U.S. market following the acquisition of Suddenlink earlier this year”, an Altice statement said. According to the report of CNBC, the company will pay Cablevision $34.90 per share – a 22 percent premium to the company’s Wednesday stock.
While Suddenlink gave Altice a foothold in a number of southern U.S. states, Cablevision is apparently the leading operator in the New York metropolitan area, with over three million customers, two third of which already buy triple-play bundles.
Altice said that Cablevision will benefit from “additional global operational expertise, enhanced scale and further investment support that are at the core of the Altice business model and strategy”.
“Altice will be truly worthy successors, and we look forward to doing all we can to affect this transition for our customers and employees”, James Dolan said.
US Pay-TV operator Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC) now has a French owner.
Cablevision’s revenue for the quarter increased 1.6% to $1.65 billion.