Cablevision shares are soaring 16.6% in after market trading after The Wall Street Journal
reported that it’s in “advanced talks” to sell itself to Luxembourg-based Altice — possibly as early as tomorrow.
The report, citing “people familiar with the matter,” did not note a likely sale price. But Cablevision had a market value of about $7.9 billion based on its closing price today. It also has about $8.8 billion in debt.
Altice’s billionaire founder Patrick Drahi has made it clear that he wanted additional U.S. cable systems after agreeing in May to buy 70% of Suddenlink in a deal that values the No. 7 cable operator at $9.1 billion including debt. Charter later outbid Altice for Time Warner Cable.
