which ever gov let this merger happen should be fired. which this history of altice why did anyone think it would be better for the USA? these people should be looked at and investigated. also any town that gave money to altce make sure you got what you paid for hearing lots of states are doing audits now to see.
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@et
Unfortunately for us ex-Cablevision workers, he couldn’t afford TWC so we all got stuck with him and his wrath. The company is in 100% shambles and disarray. We are the laughing stock of not only cable, but American business.
PD acquired the Suddenlink markets and took over the day to day operation December 2015 and immediately went after Cablevision. His only interest in Suddenlink was getting his foot in the door in the U.S. His game was to get in with a smaller company and then go after a bigger market.
@b9 Trump became President January 20, 2017.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved European telecom group Altice's $17.7 billion acquisition of Cablevision (Optimum) on May 3, 2016, during President Barack Obama's second term. Altice officially closed the deal and took control of Optimum in June 2016.
@a6 no sir, please don’t make it about politics on this site, Trump was in power in April 2016 when they started negotiating in the Mediterranean Sea and then was announced on Labor Day that same year that the sale was approved
https://www.nexttv.com/news/new-york-city-psc-staff-wary-cablevisionaltice-deal-397180
Even NY was against it.
This is a 2016 article — from when Altice was trying to get regulatory approval to buy Cablevision. It's essentially a preview of everything that went wrong.
New York regulators and the Public Advocate (Letitia James, before she became Attorney General) were warning that Altice's plan to cut $900 million in costs would hurt customer service, affordable broadband access, and jobs. PSC staff recommended conditions including a $10/month low-income broadband option, a full fiber upgrade within 36 months, and no elimination of customer-facing jobs for five years.
The most telling line: Moody's said the $900M in savings was unrealistic and estimated half that. And they pointed to SFR — Altice's French wireless unit — which lost a million customers after identical cost cuts.
Regulators saw exactly what was coming in 2016 and said so publicly. Altice agreed to conditions to get the deal approved, then proceeded to do largely what regulators feared anyway — cut costs, reduce service quality, lose customers, and underinvest in the network.
The fiber upgrade commitment they made to get regulatory approval is particularly ironic given where the network stands today, ten years later, with only a fraction of the footprint actually on fiber.
It's a good historical document showing the deal was controversial from day one and that the warning signs were visible to anyone paying attention.
Obama Administration