Altice will take a t emporary break from acquisitions, unless privately-held U.S. cableco Cox Communications becomes available.
The Netherlands-based cable group last week agreed to acquire Cox’s rival Cablevision in a deal worth US$17.7 billion, mere months after announcing its entry in the U.S. with the $9.1 billion purchase of Suddenlink.
Altice’s shopping spree has also included French mobile operator SFR, Portugal Telecom, and a failed bid for SFR rival Bouygues Telecom. The company has also reportedly shown interest in Dutch incumbent KPN.
"We owe it to our investors, both on the debt and equity side, to pause on the pace of the acquisitions," said Dexter Goei, CEO of Altice, in a report by Bloomberg late on Wednesday.
He said the length of the break could be anywhere between a few months and a couple of years.
"The only thing that would make us scratch our heads is if Cox came up and said ‘I’m going to auction my business’," he revealed.
Cox currently serves around 6 million individual subscribers. Were Altice to buy the company, its U.S. customer base would jump to 10.6 million, enough to make it the third-largest cableco in the country, behind market leader Comcast and Time Warner Cable (TWC).
However, Charter Communications is in the process of buying TWC and smaller rival Bright House Networks; once the dust settles on those acquisitions, it will be left with around 24 million subscribers, firmly consolidating its number two spot.
