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David Landsman
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http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzcabl304195886mar30,0,6595980.story?coll
=ny-business-headlines
D-Day for Dolans
With decisions due tomorrow on West Side and Voom, it's a crucial time for
Cablevision father and son who don't see eye to eye
BY HARRY BERKOWITZ AND MONTY PHAN
STAFF WRITERS
March 30, 2005
Two years ago, Cablevision chief executive James Dolan labeled himself the
"dutiful son." His role was to carry out the strategies set by his father,
chairman and founder Charles Dolan, he told an interviewer.
Whether that meant deciding to sell the Bravo cable channel to NBC or
rolling out the company's digital cable service, Dad supposedly called the
shots.
But all that has been shaken up in recent weeks. Now it is the combative son
who has stepped out front, especially in two major disputes that will come
to a head tomorrow: one with his own father and one with the Jets and Mayor
Michael Bloomberg over a proposed West Side Stadium.
The two decisions could set the outcome of those disputes and determine to
what degree James Dolan, and Cablevision, emerge from the father and
founder's shadow.
"I just think it's his coming-out period," said Miramax co-founder Harvey
Weinstein, a friend of James Dolan's.
In one decision tomorrow, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is to
announce whether Cablevision, the Jets or longshot energy concern TransGas
will get to develop a 13-acre site on the West Side of Manhattan.
Tomorrow also is the day an agreement expires between Charles Dolan, 78, and
the board of directors to keep alive the Voom high-definition satellite TV
service, which his son wants to kill as Charles Dolan tries desperately to
take it off the company's hands.
"This has made it clear for the first time that Jimmy Dolan is doing more
than just dancing to his father's tune, that he is, in fact, exerting
leadership at Cablevision," said Craig Moffett, an analyst at investment
firm Sanford C. Bernstein.
Charles Dolan is not making it easy for his son. This week, in defiance of
the board and his son, he joined with a consumer group to file a petition
with the Federal Communications Commission to block the sale of the sole
Voom satellite to EchoStar Communications - a $200-million deal James Dolan,
49, signed in January.
On top of that, Cablevision is now weighing whether to seek a merger with
bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications - thereby thwarting the
plans of media giants Time Warner and Comcast to buy it.
Those decisions and their aftermath will test James Dolan's highly emotional
and confrontational style. His methods are in sharp contrast to his father's
more mannerly and reserved approach, and have included a head-to-head public
struggle with Bloomberg, who backs the Jets stadium. His father apparently
has not opposed the battle, but James, who took over as chief executive in
1995, has shaped it and fought it loudly and publicly.
"It's very hard to believe these guys are father and son," said a former
media executive who has sat across the negotiating table from both. "Jim is
a table pounder and far more emotional than his father."
The Voom decision will help determine what future role the elder Dolan plays
in the company he created three decades ago and whether the younger Dolan
can live up to a vow he made to Wall Street analysts 15 months ago that
Cablevision will stop veering off on risky and expensive tangents.
In the past, James Dolan was linked most often to Cablevision's ill-fated
acquisition of The Wiz retail electronics chain, which was liquidated after
losing hundreds of millions of dollars.
The father and son have been feuding for months over Voom, which lost $661
million last year. Ironically, Wall Street analysts and many cable industry
executives are calling James the hero of the Voom saga, even though for
years they considered him an unworthy successor to his father.
"His success in founding HBO and Cablevision has led most investors to think
Chuck Dolan was really the brains behind the throne ... ," Moffett said.
"But in Voom, Jimmy is giving appropriate weight to public shareholders'
interests in preventing continued losses."
The Voom battle pales in comparison to the war between Cablevision and the
Jets, whose proposed $1.9-billion stadium project poses a competitive threat
to the company's Madison Square Garden.
By bidding for the site with a proposal to build a residential and park
complex, Cablevision has at least complicated the Jets' bid. "It has been a
cunning move to make the process more competitive," said UBS analyst Aryeh
Bourkoff. "But it does expose the company to ventures outside of its core
competency of cable TV and networks. Jim Dolan has raised the stakes for
everybody."
Moffett said Dolan's bet on the West Side holds more dangers than his Voom
stance. "In the West Side stadium project, it is less clear whether his
hardball tactics will pay dividends," he said. "Jim Dolan has potentially
irreparably damaged Cablevision's relationship with the mayor's office ... "
Even if James Dolan is on the right side in the Voom and West Side
struggles, analysts ask why those issues had to reach the crisis point.
In an interview with USA Today, Dolan said that, as CEO of a public company,
"you don't bet the farm" on a venture like Voom, but noted that it was hard
to defy his "entrepreneurial father."
As for the Garden, the Jets domed stadium would threaten it "in a way that
nothing else does," Dolan told New York magazine, "and if we had not started
shouting about it, I'm telling you, that thing would be being built right
now."
Moffett said that a good CEO needs to be effective in corporate peace as
well as war, and it is not clear Dolan can do both. Madison Square Garden,
where Dolan is chairman, "is a gem of an asset that has dramatically
underperformed," Moffett said.
On the other hand, after years of big spending and some missteps,
Cablevision's core businesses are performing well, thanks in part to chief
operating officer Tom Rutledge, whom James Dolan brought in from Time Warner
Cable.
"You have to give him very high marks for bringing in Rutledge, and then
doing the right thing by giving him enough leash to run the business,"
Moffett said.
Copyright C 2005, Newsday, Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: thegrod [mailto:bruceg@htva.net]
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 1:28 AM
To: VOOM@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [VOOM] Relocation problem
------------------------
=ny-business-headlines
D-Day for Dolans
With decisions due tomorrow on West Side and Voom, it's a crucial time for
Cablevision father and son who don't see eye to eye
BY HARRY BERKOWITZ AND MONTY PHAN
STAFF WRITERS
March 30, 2005
Two years ago, Cablevision chief executive James Dolan labeled himself the
"dutiful son." His role was to carry out the strategies set by his father,
chairman and founder Charles Dolan, he told an interviewer.
Whether that meant deciding to sell the Bravo cable channel to NBC or
rolling out the company's digital cable service, Dad supposedly called the
shots.
But all that has been shaken up in recent weeks. Now it is the combative son
who has stepped out front, especially in two major disputes that will come
to a head tomorrow: one with his own father and one with the Jets and Mayor
Michael Bloomberg over a proposed West Side Stadium.
The two decisions could set the outcome of those disputes and determine to
what degree James Dolan, and Cablevision, emerge from the father and
founder's shadow.
"I just think it's his coming-out period," said Miramax co-founder Harvey
Weinstein, a friend of James Dolan's.
In one decision tomorrow, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is to
announce whether Cablevision, the Jets or longshot energy concern TransGas
will get to develop a 13-acre site on the West Side of Manhattan.
Tomorrow also is the day an agreement expires between Charles Dolan, 78, and
the board of directors to keep alive the Voom high-definition satellite TV
service, which his son wants to kill as Charles Dolan tries desperately to
take it off the company's hands.
"This has made it clear for the first time that Jimmy Dolan is doing more
than just dancing to his father's tune, that he is, in fact, exerting
leadership at Cablevision," said Craig Moffett, an analyst at investment
firm Sanford C. Bernstein.
Charles Dolan is not making it easy for his son. This week, in defiance of
the board and his son, he joined with a consumer group to file a petition
with the Federal Communications Commission to block the sale of the sole
Voom satellite to EchoStar Communications - a $200-million deal James Dolan,
49, signed in January.
On top of that, Cablevision is now weighing whether to seek a merger with
bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications - thereby thwarting the
plans of media giants Time Warner and Comcast to buy it.
Those decisions and their aftermath will test James Dolan's highly emotional
and confrontational style. His methods are in sharp contrast to his father's
more mannerly and reserved approach, and have included a head-to-head public
struggle with Bloomberg, who backs the Jets stadium. His father apparently
has not opposed the battle, but James, who took over as chief executive in
1995, has shaped it and fought it loudly and publicly.
"It's very hard to believe these guys are father and son," said a former
media executive who has sat across the negotiating table from both. "Jim is
a table pounder and far more emotional than his father."
The Voom decision will help determine what future role the elder Dolan plays
in the company he created three decades ago and whether the younger Dolan
can live up to a vow he made to Wall Street analysts 15 months ago that
Cablevision will stop veering off on risky and expensive tangents.
In the past, James Dolan was linked most often to Cablevision's ill-fated
acquisition of The Wiz retail electronics chain, which was liquidated after
losing hundreds of millions of dollars.
The father and son have been feuding for months over Voom, which lost $661
million last year. Ironically, Wall Street analysts and many cable industry
executives are calling James the hero of the Voom saga, even though for
years they considered him an unworthy successor to his father.
"His success in founding HBO and Cablevision has led most investors to think
Chuck Dolan was really the brains behind the throne ... ," Moffett said.
"But in Voom, Jimmy is giving appropriate weight to public shareholders'
interests in preventing continued losses."
The Voom battle pales in comparison to the war between Cablevision and the
Jets, whose proposed $1.9-billion stadium project poses a competitive threat
to the company's Madison Square Garden.
By bidding for the site with a proposal to build a residential and park
complex, Cablevision has at least complicated the Jets' bid. "It has been a
cunning move to make the process more competitive," said UBS analyst Aryeh
Bourkoff. "But it does expose the company to ventures outside of its core
competency of cable TV and networks. Jim Dolan has raised the stakes for
everybody."
Moffett said Dolan's bet on the West Side holds more dangers than his Voom
stance. "In the West Side stadium project, it is less clear whether his
hardball tactics will pay dividends," he said. "Jim Dolan has potentially
irreparably damaged Cablevision's relationship with the mayor's office ... "
Even if James Dolan is on the right side in the Voom and West Side
struggles, analysts ask why those issues had to reach the crisis point.
In an interview with USA Today, Dolan said that, as CEO of a public company,
"you don't bet the farm" on a venture like Voom, but noted that it was hard
to defy his "entrepreneurial father."
As for the Garden, the Jets domed stadium would threaten it "in a way that
nothing else does," Dolan told New York magazine, "and if we had not started
shouting about it, I'm telling you, that thing would be being built right
now."
Moffett said that a good CEO needs to be effective in corporate peace as
well as war, and it is not clear Dolan can do both. Madison Square Garden,
where Dolan is chairman, "is a gem of an asset that has dramatically
underperformed," Moffett said.
On the other hand, after years of big spending and some missteps,
Cablevision's core businesses are performing well, thanks in part to chief
operating officer Tom Rutledge, whom James Dolan brought in from Time Warner
Cable.
"You have to give him very high marks for bringing in Rutledge, and then
doing the right thing by giving him enough leash to run the business,"
Moffett said.
Copyright C 2005, Newsday, Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: thegrod [mailto:bruceg@htva.net]
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 1:28 AM
To: VOOM@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [VOOM] Relocation problem
------------------------
