Flash!!!! There will be no official statement on Monday

rang1995

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PDATE 1-Cablevision chairman lays out plan for Voom
Mon Mar 7, 2005 06:05 PM ET
(Recasts first paragraph, headline; adds Sears comment, stock price)

By Kenneth Li

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UPDATE 1-Cablevision chairman lays out plan for Voom
Cablevision chairman to lay out plan for Voom
Voom assures Sears on continued service-WSJ

NEW YORK, March 7 (Reuters) - Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chairman Charles Dolan on Monday presented details of an ambitious plan to purchase the remaining assets of a satellite venture that lost $661.4 million last year.

A board meeting of the company in Florida adjourned at 3 p.m. (2000 GMT). A company spokeswoman declined to comment and said there would be no official statement on Monday.

Wall Street analysts and media industry observers said last week it was unclear how Dolan plans to pay for Cablevision's Voom assets, which include 21 high-definition programming channels, a lease on a satellite and the 46,000 subscribers he says Voom has.

Cablevision on March 3 extended a deadline to shut down the Voom service to give the chairman "further opportunity" to present a credible plan to the board.

A spokeswoman for Sears, Roebuck and Co. (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , the largest retailer of the service, said late on Monday the company plans to continue selling the Voom service at its retail locations. "The policy is Sears will continue selling Voom," spokeswoman Lauren Jiles-Johnson said.

The cost of running the Voom service over the next two years has been estimated at more than $1 billion by Richard Greenfield at Fulcrum Global Partners.

Anticipating Dolan's plans, which he presented to the board on Monday, is difficult because his actions thus far have diverged from conventional business logic, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett said.

But Dolan, who launched the premium cable channel HBO in the early 1970s and who made cable television a household fixture in New York over more than three decades, has in the past demonstrated a knack for spotting value.

The 78-year-old chairman could be betting the future of the cable and sports company that he founded in 1973 and that now holds a richly valued New York area subscriber base of 3 million, analysts said.

This time, his repeated attempts to keep Voom alive have drawn the attention of regulators, who launched an informal inquiry into stock trades during the satellite venture's unwinding.

Dolan's attempts to buy the remaining Voom assets have also pitted him against his son James, who is Cablevision's chief executive, and other board members who believe the company should further distance itself from a business traditionally viewed as a competitive threat to its core cable television service.

That struggle has led some Wall Street analysts to speculate Charles Dolan may sell off part or all of Cablevision to finance Voom.

A stern letter to Charles Dolan from board member Victor Oristano, representing the company's independent and Class A shareholders, suggested his plans could jeopardize an earlier agreement to sell off Voom's one satellite for an estimated $200 million to EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH.O: Quote, Profile, Research) .

UBS analyst Aryeh Bourkoff said a reversal of that deal would mean Cablevision loses the $200 million of expected proceeds from the sale and would have to continue to try to run the money-losing business.

"A possible reversal could reintroduce a value-destructive asset to the company, compounded with removal of $200 million of anticipated proceeds," he said.

The Oristano letter, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week, briefly mentions discussions that Charles Dolan intended to have with rival EchoStar.

The talks would center on combining the satellite and licenses that have been pledged to EchoStar with the rest of the satellite business, which is what Dolan intends to buy.

With control of super-voting class B shares, Charles Dolan last week removed three board members who had opposed him. He replaced them with a slate of media industry heavyweights including Liberty Media Corp. (L.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chairman John Malone and former Viacom Inc. (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) President Frank Biondi Jr.

Charles Dolan has about 37 percent direct ownership of a family trust that controls 75 percent of Cablevision's vote.

He also plans to request an additional board seat for Brian Sweeney, senior vice president of e-media at Cablevision, who is also his son-in-law.

Shares of Cablevision rose 80 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $29.29 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.
 
In this day and age, we are spoiled with instant gratification. It is not to be today!

:smug
 
we wait for Round 2 on Tuesday
<img src=http://www.onzuka.com/Photos/Super%20Brawl/SB24/Ring-Girl-in-light-blue-&-w.jpg>
 
QUOTE this really sucks !!!! Come on when do they intend to tell subs what is going on the day after transmissions cease. "brayn27"




i think thats some of the reason they are where they are now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
alive,dead,alive,dead,alive,dead--How much more can the customers and workers(at Voom)take??
 
Ok. We get to go through all of this again tomorrow. Must.Call.Doctor.

Need.More. Xanax.
 
I guess I don't' understand. Are they meeting again tomorrow or issuing a press release tomorrow or both? If they are meeting tomorrow again, than they could not have taken a vote or Chuck asked for another day to finish some detail. Anyone know where Tom Dolan and friend traveled this weekend? Was he at the board meeting?
 
For all us Voomers tonight --
<img src=http://www.thegooddrugsguide.com/gallery/images/t_xanax.jpg>
 
OK, 1 billion over the next two years is $500 million per year. 500 million per year is $41.6 million per month divided by $50 per sub = 83333 subs to break even. That doesn't sound unreasonable.

How come DirecTV can't make any money with 12 million subs?????
 
gutter said:
I guess I don't' understand. Are they meeting again tomorrow or issuing a press release tomorrow or both?
This is not clear from the quote. I guess we need to wait for further reports.
 
I like the fact they mentioned in that report that cablevision will lose more of thier asses if they don't sell it. $200 million is a lot to lose just because you wanna have a *my balls are bigger than yours* fight with your dad, Little Dolan.
 
softwiz said:
OK, 1 billion over the next two years is $500 million per year. 500 million per year is $41.6 million per month divided by $50 per sub = 83333 subs to break even. That doesn't sound unreasonable.

How come DirecTV can't make any money with 12 million subs?????

Well, that's probably not totally correct. They probably already assumed revenue from existing customers, plus some rate of anticipated growth, and still came up with that loss. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual break-even point was significantly higher.

Also, D* probably did make a healthy profit if you only look at the actual cost of delivering existing service to existing customers. Where the loss probably came from was new customer installs, Research and Development costs for future services, and investment in new assets. With what they say they will deliver, they probably incurred a huge initial investment last year.
 
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