The Dolan family wants to buy out public shareholders of Cablevision Systems, take the cable company private and spin off the non-cable assets into an entertainment company, according to the New York Times. The family, including the recently feuding Chairman Chuck Dolan and CEO Jim Dolan, told the board in a letter Sunday that leaving the public sector and the drive for short-term quarterly results would make the company more effective for “a new and challenging era.” Cablevision has roughly 3 million cable subs, more than 1.4 million broadband subs and 365,000 voice subs in the New York area. The entertainment assets include the Rangers, the Knicks, cable nets, Madison Square Garden, and Radio City Music Hall. Chuck Dolan would run the cable business while his son would head the entertainment spin-off.
Update: B&C has a cover story on Cablevision with plenty of good info but not this piece of news. Once you read it, though, you’ll have a much better understanding of the company and the Dolans’ reasons for wanting to go private. One valuable point: Cablevision has had some bombs — The Wiz, Voom come to mind — but it has been much more successful than some of its bigger cable siblings when it comes to penetration for advanced services like digital, broadband and voice. An aggressively priced triple play is already profitable, bringing more basic customers and stemming some churn.
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