News info from Wall Street Journal todayAlso from the Wall Street Journal.
The link below will not work unless you have an an account at their site,
but I am going to post it anyway.
===
EchoStar to Buy Voom's Assets From Cablevision
By PETER GRANT and ANDY PASZTOR
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 21, 2005
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110626286893131967,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
Cablevision Systems Corp. will shut down its Voom satellite service and sell
most of the assets of the money-losing business to EchoStar
Communications Corp. for $200 million in cash.
The deal amounts to a major defeat for Cablevision Chairman Charles Dolan,
who has championed the service for more than 10 years. It also marks the
climax of a family and financial drama that pitted Mr. Dolan against his son
James Dolan, Cablevision's chief executive.
Yesterday's announcement follows a tumultuous month in which James Dolan
sided with a majority of Cablevision board members in trying to sell Voom or
shut down the service that had little hope of seeing a profit for years.
Charles Dolan at one point threatened to use his controlling stake in the
company to force directors off the board who opposed continued funding.
Earlier this week, Charles Dolan indicated in a memo to Voom employees that
family members might buy the service themselves to keep it operating.
"It closes the book on what has been a relatively unhappy chapter in
Cablevision's history," says Craig Moffett, analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein
& Co.
EchoStar will purchase Voom's only satellite, launched by Cablevision in
2003, and other equipment. Cablevision will continue trying to sell Voom's
other assets, including valuable slots for satellites to orbit, which could
fetch tens of millions of additional dollars. But the cable operator is
unlikely to come close to recovering its investment in the business,
estimated at more than $500 million.
Cablevision said in a press release that it would continue to provide
service to Voom's roughly 26,000 subscribers "during a transition period." A
spokesman declined further comment. James and Charles Dolan couldn't be
reached.
EchoStar, the country's second-largest satellite-TV operator, has long been
seen as the most logical buyer of Voom's assets. Charles Ergen, the
company's chairman and chief executive, for months has been weighing
alternatives to compete more effectively against the deeper pockets of
DirecTV Group Inc., the largest satellite operator.
The deal with Cablevision could alleviate the concerns of investors worried
about EchoStar's ability to keep up with DirecTV in providing additional
high-definition programming.
Mr. Ergen negotiated what industry officials said was a surprisingly low
price for a powerful, two-year-old satellite with no known defects and more
than 16 years left in orbit. It cost about $250 million to build and put the
satellite into orbit, while EchoStar has avoided the risk of a launch
failure and early operational malfunctions.
Voom began selling its service in late 2003, but it got off to a bad start,
burning through $75.3 million in cash in the third quarter of last year.
Voom's strategy was to offer more high-definition channels than cable
companies and other satellite operators. But this failed to attract much
demand, especially as competitors added more high-definition offerings.
Crutchfield Corp., a large retailer of television and audio equipment,
recently stopped selling Voom.
Cablevision, the nation's sixth-largest cable network, also owns Madison
Square Garden, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. Its shares
continued to rally yesterday on investor confidence that the company will
soon stop funding Voom's deficits. In 4 p.m. composite trading on the New
York Stock Exchange, shares were up $1.10, or 4.5%, at $25.48.
The decision to sell Voom marks the first time that James Dolan has
publicly stood up to his father after working for years in his shadow.
Until now, James Dolan was primarily known for the ho-hum performance of
Cablevision's sports teams and his high-profile battles with other prominent
New Yorkers. Most recently he has fought New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
over the city's efforts to build a new stadium on Manhattan's West Side that
would compete with Madison Square Garden.
Charles Dolan, 78 years old, was one of the cable industry's pioneers. He
founded Home Box Office as well as the first regional sports channel. He
wired New York City for cable when many believed that cable was only a
business that would survive in areas where TV reception was poor.
Charles Dolan clearly thought he would prove the skeptics wrong again with
Voom. But investors and analysts were fiercely opposed to Cablevision trying
to become a third entrant into the fiercely competitive satellite business.
In response to this criticism Cablevision in 2003 decided to spin off Voom,
along with three of its cable networks. But that plan was shelved in
December and the company announced plans to explore a possible sale and
other options.
Charles Dolan, however, continued to press the board to keep funding Voom,
leading to a showdown board meeting on Tuesday at which a majority of board
members, including his son, voted to sell the business.
:
----- Original Message -----
From: "thegrod" <bruceg@htva.net>
To: <VOOM@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: [VOOM] Re: After reading through all the posts here and
satguys, those I feel sorry...
>
> That's my thinking as well. I would hope VOOM will at least assist here
> if
> and when their stream is turned off and let us at least wind up with OTA
> receivers. That's small compensation to those who purchased receivers.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "sbmcc96" <sbmcc96@yahoo.com>
> To: <VOOM@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 2:12 PM
> Subject: [VOOM] Re: After reading through all the posts here and satguys,
> those I feel sorry...
>
>
>>
>>
>> OTA is not authorized in the same manner as the satellite channels.
>> Unless Voom explicitly deauthorizes all boxes, OTA will continue to
>> work.
>>
>>
>> --- In VOOM@yahoogroups.com, "thegrod" <bruceg@h...> wrote:
>>> Jason,
>>> I am under a different impression.
>>> If you disconnect Rainbow 1 LNBF while you are authorized the OTA
>> should
>>> work indefinitely. By the way, I had a Direst TV Toshiba DST-3000
>> HDTV
>>> receiver given to me by a friend after he switched to cable. When
>> he
>>> disconnected it the authorization was active. It is still very
>> usable as an
>>> OTA receiver without any further authorization. I believe the
>> continual
>>> authorization is only necessary for the "cable" type channels.
>>> How do you know that it will not be the same situation for a VOOM
>> receiver?
>>> I hope you are wrong but if you have some information could you
>> please share
>>> the details. Many of us are counting on being left with an OTA HD
>> receiver
>>> of fairly good quality. Thanks.
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "JaydeeD" <satguys2004@y...>
>>> To: <VOOM@yahoogroups.com>
>>> Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 6:35 AM
>>> Subject: [VOOM] Re: After reading through all the posts here and
>> satguys,
>>> those I feel sorry...
>>>
>>>
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Just a quick note on the continued use of the recievers as OTA
>> tuners
>>> >
>>> > The recieevers need to recieve an authorization on a continual
>> basis to
>>> > contine working, usually every 2 weeks to a month or when you
>> change
>>> > your programming
>>> >
>>> > This being said, if Voom dies, (and I am still hoping that ther
>> old man
>>> > pitches a fit and kills his kid and the board) then within 2
>> weeks to a
>>> > month, the authorization on your reciever will expire, and the OTA
>>> > portion will no longer function
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > JaydeeD
>>> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ------
>>> > This message was posted via http://www.satelliteguys.us by JaydeeD
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Yahoo! Groups Links
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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