Video and broadband provider Altice USA said today that it has made an offer to acquire Cogeco, owner of video and broadband provider Atlantic Broadband. The proposal also calls for Altice to sell Cogeco’s Canadian operations to Rogers Communications. The all-cash offering is approximately $7.8 billion, including $3.6 billion for the U.S. assets.
Atlantic Broadband provides services in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
In a press release, Altice USA said the acquisition would enable Atlantic Broadband to benefit from “enhanced scale, operating efficiencies and further investment support that are at the core of the Altice business model and strategy.”
Altice Atlantic Broadband Similarities
The desire for enhanced scale has been a key driver for both Altice USA and Atlantic Broadband, both of whom have grown through acquisitions.
Altice USA is an offshoot of a European-based operator that entered the U.S. market in 2015 through the purchase of cable operator Suddenlink. Additional purchases, including Cablevision, followed, and the company did an initial public offering for the Altice USA business in 2017.
Atlantic Broadband acquisitions have included MetroCast, Thames Valley Communications, and FiberLight’s south Florida operations.
In today’s press release, Altice USA Chief Executive Dexter Goei said he was confident that the Cogeco boards will “act in the best interest of all shareholders and fairly evaluate this offer.” He added that “We look forward to the opportunity to extend Altice USA’s high-quality broadband, video, mobile and news offerings to more than 1.1 million additional homes and businesses.”
Altice’s mobile offering is supported by an MVNO agreement with Sprint, which has since been acquired by T-Mobile. The news offerings come through Altice’s a4 unit, which the company describes as “an advanced advertising and data business, which provides an audience-based, multiscreen advertising solutions to local, regional and national businesses and advertising clients.”
Update: Cogeco released a statement saying: “The non-binding proposal of Altice USA and Rogers Communications Inc., which was pre-emptively announced today by Altice and Rogers, has been reviewed by Gestion Audem Inc., a company controlled by the members of the Audet family holding 69% of all voting rights of CGO which in turn controls 82.9% of all voting rights of CCA. Gestion Audem Inc. has already indicated that it does not intend to sell its shares and will not support the proposal.”
Updated certain Altice USA historical information
