Former FCC Chairman Charles Ferris will remain neutral on whether...
Former FCC Chairman Charles Ferris will remain neutral on whether shareholders should approve Cablevision’s $22 billion buyout (CD May 3 p10). Earlier this year, Ferris joined other Cablevision board members in approving the merger, but when they urged public…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
shareholders to adopt the buyout proposal he held back, said a preliminary proxy filed with the FCC. The board has approved the deal and the Dolans own a majority of the company, but for the deal to close Cablevision public shareholders must sign off on it. Ferris told the board he will stay neutral because shareholders are “well positioned” to make that decision for themselves, the proxy said. Besides a glimpse into Ferris’s mind, the proxy includes a rare look at internal Cablevision revenue and profit projections for the longer term. In April, Cablevision projected that sales would rise steadily to exceed $9.7 billion in 2011, up from a projected $6.7 billion this year. Likewise Cablevision predicts its free cash flow will more than double to $2.6 billion in 2011, as capital spending fluctuates. The company regularly develops such long-term forecasts but only uses them for internal planning keeps them private because they are not reliable. It published these predictions because the board got them while considering the Dolans’ buyout offer, Cablevision said.