Altice/Cablevision Faces CWA Opposition; Deal Finding Less Financing Success Than Charter/TWC/BHN, Analyst Says
The Communication Workers of America plans to testify against Altice's buying Cablevision at a series of New York State Public Service Commission hearings in the New York City area in coming days, the CWA said in a news release Monday.…
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The hearings are to be Tuesday in the Hudson Valley community of Peekskill, Wednesday in the Bronx, and a pair of hearings Feb. 2 on Long Island. "Given its track record in other business dealings in France and Portugal, the future of Cablevision under Altice's proposed deal would mean customers will get worse service and employees will lose their jobs," said CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor in a statement. "The PSC should reject the deal as currently proposed to protect customer service and jobs." In a statement, Altice said it "look[s] forward to a fair and open regulatory process with the relevant authorities in connection with our proposed Cablevision transaction, and as in all of our other territories we expect to deliver significant benefits to consumers and their communities." CWA raised similar concerns as it lobbied the FCC for conditions on the proposed transaction (see 1601220015). In a note to investors Monday, Macquarie Capital analyst Amy Yong said Altice and Charter Communications were having different degrees of success in locking down the financing for pending acquisitions as they face different hurdles. The FCC's 180-day Charter shot clock was paused earlier this month to deal with "hot topics including interconnection, Regional Sports Networks, and of course broadband competition [though] concerns around broadband share from the Comcast-Time Warner deal don't seem to apply to Charter," Yong said. New York state regulators earlier this month signed off on Charter buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable (see 1601080048) and the California Public Utilities Commission plan a public hearing Tuesday (see 1601200060), but Altice is facing more pushback from New York City on its proposed Cablevision takeover because of how the $900 million in synergies Altice has cited could affect its 14,000 employees there and 3.1 million customers in the metropolitan region, Yong said.