Cablevision’s board has approved the spin off of its Madison Square Garden business to the company’s shareholders, the cable operator said in a statement. The spinoff, which was first announced during its Q109 earnings call, will take place on February 9, 2010. Under the terms the board decided on, shareholders with Class A stock will receive one share of MSG Class A common stock for every four shares of Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) Class A common stock they hold as of the record date, which is Jan. 25. The same ratio holds for the Cablevision Class B shareholders — one share of Class B Cablevision stock is equal to four shares from MSG’s Class B shares. The Bethpage cable company’s shareholders are not required to pay to receive the MSG shares.
MSG became part of Cablevision nearly 15 years ago. It houses a wide collection of sports, entertainment and programming properties, including the arena of the same name and several other NYC venues, as well as cable networks MSG and Fuse, the New York Knicks and Rangers sports teams, and production company MSG Entertainment.
The company initially planned to spin off MSG by the end of ’09. In Q309 earnings, MSG proved that it could offer a significant contribution to Cablevision, which saw profits triple. During that period, the MSG unit swung to a $12.3 million profit. Release

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