Dolans Strengthen Cablevision Board

[rtt2]

Dolans Strengthen Cablevision Board

JERICHO, N.Y., March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Charles F. Dolan announced today
that holders of a majority of the Class B common stock of Cablevision Systems
Corporation have elected Rand Araskog, Frank J. Biondi, Jr., Dr. John Malone
and Dr. Leonard Tow to Cablevision's board of directors. The new directors
will replace William J. Bell and Sheila Mahony, both of whom recently retired
as officers of Cablevision, Steven Rattner and the late John Tatta. The new
directors are expected to serve until the next annual meeting of stockholders,
currently scheduled for May 19, 2005, and then to be re-nominated for an
additional term.
Mr. Dolan also announced that the board will be asked at its next meeting
on March 7, to increase its size so that the Class B stockholders may elect
Brian Sweeney to fill a new seat. Mr. Sweeney has been with Cablevision for 12
years and is currently a Senior Vice-President for e-media with responsibility
for websites and interactive television services. He is a son-in-law of Mr.
Dolan, the Chairman of Cablevision.
Said Chairman Charles Dolan, "In light of the extensive industry
experience and impressive qualifications of these individuals, the Class B
stockholders believe that they will be very well-positioned to make
significant contributions to the long-term success of the company."
Mr. Dolan has also notified Cablevision that the Class B stockholders will
exercise their rights under Cablevision's certificate of incorporation to
nominate and elect 75% of the company's directors at the next annual meeting
of stockholders.

Additional information with respect to each of the new directors follows:

Rand Araskog is a former Chairman, CEO and President of ITT Corporation
and current or former director of several companies, including Shell Oil
Companies, Dow Jones & Company, Inc., and Hartford Financial Services Group.

Frank J. Biondi, Jr. is a former President and CEO of Viacom, Inc., former
Chairman and CEO of Universal Studios, Inc., former Chairman and CEO of Home
Box Office, Inc. and a current director of several companies, including The
Bank of New York Company, Inc., Hasbro, Inc., Harrah's Entertainment Inc., and
Amgen, Inc.

Dr. John C. Malone is Chairman of Liberty Media Corporation, a position he
has held since 1990. From 1996 to March, 1999 when Tele-Communications, Inc.
merged with AT&T Corp., he was also Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
TCI. He currently serves on the board of Directors for the Bank of New York,
the CATO Institute, Discovery Communications, Inc., Liberty Media
International, UnitedGlobalCom, Inc. and The Nature Conservancy.

Dr. Leonard Tow is former chairman and chief executive officer of Citizens
Communications and chief executive officer of Century Communications Corp., a
cable television company. Dr. Tow is also a former senior vice president,
corporate development and planning for Teleprompter Corp. and a management
consultant for Touche Ross & Company.


SOURCE Charles F. Dolan

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/03-02-2005/0003112886&EDATE=

 

[mike123abc]

Very interesting next board meeting on Monday. Perhaps the Dolans can come to terms with CVC on the VOOM buyout in time for Monday's board meeting. Also interesting that 4 new board members elected by the "B" shareholders, and want the expansion to continue to a 5th board member... Could Dolan Sr be stacking the board in his favor?

 

[The Stone Man]

John C. Malone is a heavy hitter from Colorado, and well known as a media magnate. He also has some serious $$ on a personal level.

From Yahoo search, #310 on richest people list froom 2004.
Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People 2002
... Next > Malone, John C , 61 , self made ... Malone, John C. # 310 on World's Richest People 2004 , # 278 on World's Richest People 2003 , # 182 on ...forbes.com/finance/lists/10/2002/LIR.jhtml?passListId=10&...

 

[Bruce]

John C. Malone is a heavy hitter from Colorado, and well known as a media magnate. He also has some serious $$ on a personal level.

He is the reason why News-Corp put their poison pill in effect because he was buying up their stock like mad and now owns 17% of it.

"The timing of the transaction raises questions about the status of Mr. Murdoch's feud with John C. Malone, the chairman of Liberty Media, who raised his company's investment in the News Corporation to 17 percent in November behind the back of Mr. Murdoch, who owns a 30 percent voting stake.

Only a week later, News Corporation introduced a plan to thwart would-be hostile bidders and keep Mr. Murdoch in control of the company, which he plans to turn over to his sons: Lachlan, now deputy chief operating officer, and James, chief executive of British Sky Broadcasting, Mr. Murdoch's satellite TV company in Britain."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/b...=a3b0a2020235a10d&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

Kind of stange for a company to elect him to a board, even a company that might be for sale.

 

[deeann]

Whoa- Frank J. Biondi, Jr... he has a hand in kind of a lot (CA/NV).

 

[rang1995]

Voom accepting customers after Cablevision said no
Wed Mar 2, 2005 08:01 PM ET
By Kenneth Li
NEW YORK, March 2 (Reuters) - Cablevision Systems Corp.'s (CVC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) satellite television service VOOM appeared to be accepting new customers on Wednesday, two days after the company vowed to shut VOOM down.


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News for CVC.N
Cablevision chairman says board revamped
Voom accepting customers after Cablevision said no
U.S. cable executive starts media investment firm


A new Web site, http://www.voomllc.com, which is nearly identical to the VOOM Web site that Cablevision operated, on Wednesday appeared to be marketing the VOOM satellite service. The new Web site was registered on March 1 to a Pennington, New Jersey, company called MC Squared Inc. Cablevision is in Bethpage, New York.
The old Cablevision VOOM Web site, http://www.voom.com, on Wednesday carried a notice that said: "VOOM has ceased taking new customer orders and will shut down by the end of March."

The conflicting information about VOOM appeared to reflect a family feud between Cablevision founder Charles Dolan, who now sees the future of media in satellite transmission, and son and CEO James Dolan, who with Cablevision's board of directors moved to end the money-draining VOOM business.

Craig Moffett, analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein said VOOM would lose more money if it acquired more new subscribers. "The nature of the beast is what really consumes cash in the startup is customer acquisition costs," he said.

A FAMILY DIVIDED

Shortly after the Cablevision board decided in January to sell off part of its satellite assets to EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , Charles Dolan and another son, Tom, launched a new company -- Voom HD, LLC -- to buy the remaining assets.

These assets included Voom's 26,000 subscribers, 21 high definition programming channels and a lease on a satellite.

But on Monday, Cablevision said it would shut down the Voom business because it had failed to reach a final agreement with Charles Dolan to sell him the Voom business.

On the same day, Charles Dolan said in a statement that VOOM HD was prepared to finance the service.

It was unclear if MC Squared is related to Charles Dolan or VOOM HD.

Calls to Charles Dolan were forwarded to a Cablevision spokesman, who did not return them.

MC Squared, whose Web site says it is a "consulting, design and invention company," could not immediately be reached.

Calls to Cablevision seeking information about the new Web site were not returned.

Phone calls to a customer service number supplied by the new Web site and an old number from Cablevision both elicited that Voom was accepting new orders

 

[patrickpiteo]

Wow this stuff just gets better and better....

 

[rang1995]

this is WAR

 

[The Stone Man]

All these developments and twists are making my head spin. Just think of Linda Blair in 'The Exorcist'. Fortunately, I have not yet resorted to projectile vomitting (or in this case--should we say voomitting).

 

[graphiteRT]

I'm forecasting fireworks for the March 7th meeting. Maybe James grabbed a tiger by the tail and the tiger is about to bite him on the ass.

 

[Bruce]

Looks like the person who wrote that Reuters story did no research.

"It was unclear if MC Squared is related to Charles Dolan or VOOM HD."

If he just checked MC2 site he would have seen that they did Voom's marketing CD for magazines.

 

[rang1995]

WOW---what a cast,amazing Walt disney isn't here also!
Rand Araskog is a former Chairman, CEO and President of ITT Corporation
and current or former director of several companies, including Shell Oil
Companies, Dow Jones & Company, Inc., and Hartford Financial Services Group.

Frank J. Biondi, Jr. is a former President and CEO of Viacom, Inc., former
Chairman and CEO of Universal Studios, Inc., former Chairman and CEO of Home
Box Office, Inc. and a current director of several companies, including The
Bank of New York Company, Inc., Hasbro, Inc., Harrah's Entertainment Inc., and
Amgen, Inc.

Dr. John C. Malone is Chairman of Liberty Media Corporation, a position he
has held since 1990. From 1996 to March, 1999 when Tele-Communications, Inc.
merged with AT&T Corp., he was also Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
TCI. He currently serves on the board of Directors for the Bank of New York,
the CATO Institute, Discovery Communications, Inc., Liberty Media
International, UnitedGlobalCom, Inc. and The Nature Conservancy.

Dr. Leonard Tow is former chairman and chief executive officer of Citizens
Communications and chief executive officer of Century Communications Corp., a
cable television company. Dr. Tow is also a former senior vice president,
corporate development and planning for Teleprompter Corp. and a management
consultant for Touche Ross & Company.

 

[rang1995]

These new members,if it goes thru makes VOOM a GIANT in the industry--i know ,i know no subs but now it has created a monster corp where $$ will flow

 

[Vicki]

Mine, too!

Hope I make it to bed before the installer shows up tomorrow at 8AM...Went to bed about 10:30 last night, and I've just been trying to catch up ever since 8AM today!! And I'm not making much headway...

 

[Bruce]

These new members,if it goes thru makes VOOM a GIANT in the industry--i know ,i know no subs but now it has created a monster corp where $$ will flow

But if they just come in so Mr.Dolan has just some "yes men" because of Voom, the SEC will be on it like white on rice, the only way it will look like a good deal is a lot of cash to pay for Voom, or if then cablevision keeps funding Voom instead, here come the lawsuits from the shareholders, remember Mr.Dolan only has 3% of the Class A stock ( he owns a lot of Class B), that a lot of Stocks out there with other peoples money invested in Cablevision.

 

[Ty2083]

rang1995, this will do nothing for VOOM. This is the CVC board and VOOM will be privately owned. But hopefully, it will make the transition for VOOM to be sold to the Dolans move more smoothly and more quickly. I would postulate that this is what Chuck Dolan is trying to do here.

 

[Bruce]

rang1995, this will do nothing for VOOM. This is the CVC board and VOOM will be privately owned. But hopefully, it will make the transition for VOOM to be sold to the Dolans move more smoothly and more quickly. I would postulate that this is what Chuck Dolan is trying to do here.

And the SEC then will be right there,one of the board's job is take care of the Stock Owners, not just the interests of one of them.

 

[rang1995]

wrong these are the old guard of the cable business coming to the aid of the pioneer C dolan and they will launch VOOM big time as what??i dont know but wall street will notice,and jimmy jr just got bitched slapped

 

[vurbano]

Charles Dolan has just bitch slapped James. I love it

 

[vurbano]

And the SEC then will be right there,one of the board's job is take care of the Stock Owners, not just the interests of one of them.

You and fredfa hang on to that Voom Doom hope Cause the SEC isnt going to do a damn thing about it.