Dolans Raise Offer for Cablevision Shares

BETHPAGE, January 12: The
Dolan family has raised its bid to take Cablevision Systems Corporation
private, offering the company’s public shareholders $30 per share versus the
$27 per share proposal that was rejected in October 2006.

The all-cash offer of $30
per share represents a 25.4-percent premium over the share price on the day
before the October 2006 offer and an 11.1-percent premium over the original
$27/share bid. The current proposal values the total equity of Cablevision at
approximately $8.9 billion and implies an enterprise value of approximately
$20.1 billion.

In a letter to the
Cablevision board, founder and chairman Charles Dolan and his son James, CEO of
the company, said that the revised proposal represents its “best and final
offer.” The offer expires on January 17.

The letter to the board’s
special committee convened to evaluate the bid—the Dolans’ third attempt
to take the company private—notes that privatizing the company “will
provide an environment permitting management to meet the challenges of
intensifying competition and the risk of new entrants in the years to come.”
The letter continued, “In our view, private ownership would better allow us to
execute on this long-term, entrepreneurial management perspective, and we are
willing to assume the risks of full ownership and additional leverage to
optimize the Company’s ability to continue to grow.”

The Dolans also note that
they have no intention of “selling the company or our control position in the
company, whether Cablevision continues as a public company or goes private.”

Time Warner Cable has eyed
the assets, and reports indicate that the Dolans had informal talks with
Liberty Media about a sale. The Dolans own about 24 percent of Cablevision, and
also have voting control.