Altice on Wednesday agreed to buy Suddenlink Communications, the seventh largest U.S. cable TV company, amid speculation it’s also aiming to acquire No. 2 Time Warner Cable (TWC). Altice’s purchase of a 70% stake in Suddenlink marks the second time a French telecom company has targeted the U.S. in less than a year. French upstart Iliad in October dropped its takeover bid for T-Mobile US (TMUS), which is controlled by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom
Comcast says that it’s in no rush to launch a national Internet video service now that regulators have thwarted its merger with Time Warner Cable, which would have created a coast-to-coast cable TV giant. On its Q1 earnings conference call with analysts early Monday, Comcast (CMCSA) said that it is focused on expanding its “X1” service platform. Had regulators approved the Time Warner Cable (TWC) merger, Comcast’s interest in licensing the X1
Comcast (CMCSA) early Monday said Q1 earnings minus items rose 16% to 79 cents, topping views, and raised its 2015 stock repurchase program by nearly 60% to $6.75 billion after recently ending its bid to acquire Time Warner Cable (TWC). The No. 1 cable TV company said revenue rose 2.6% to $17.9 billion, also topping Wall Street consensus estimates. Analyst polled by Thomson Reuters had modelled EPS of 74 cents on revenue of $17.4 billion.