Levin: No to AT&T's Cablevision Stake
By Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 5/17/2001 1:12:00 PM
New York -- AOL Time Warner Inc. CEO Gerald Levin said his company has no interest in acquiring the 30 million shares of Cablevision Systems Corp. stock owned by AT&T Corp., but he added that he still harbors a wish to consolidate the New York metropolitan market, Cablevision's operating base.
Asked at AOL Time Warner's annual meeting here Thursday, Levin said he was not interested in buying AT&T's Cablevision stake, which, although it represents about 17 percent of Cablevision's outstanding stock, holds minimal voting rights.
AT&T asked Cablevision to register 30 million of the 49 million shares it owns in the Bethpage, N.Y.-based MSO last month for possible sale. Cablevision countered May 8, saying it would not register the shares, which could block an offering for up to 145 days.
Some analysts have speculated that buying the Cablevision shares would be a foot in the door for AOL Time Warner, which has long coveted Cablevision's New York assets.
Cablevision has about 3 million subscribers in the New York metro area. Time Warner's largest single cluster is in Manhattan, with 1.2 million subscribers.
'The interest that AT&T owns is an illiquid, passive interest,' Levin said at the meeting. 'It provides no path to control. We have not stepped up in any way.'
Later, after the meeting was over, Levin told a small group of reporters and shareholders that he was not talking about any deals in the works.
'Of course it makes sense,' Levin said of a combination of Cablevision and AOL Time Warner cable assets. 'I was not making any statement about a transaction.'
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