https://www.thestreet.com/story/13292749/1/how-europe-s-altice-wants-to-change-cablevision-and-u-s-pay-tv-industry.html
TheStreet
(New York) -- Hours after announcing his plans to acquire Cablevision Systems (CVC) , the fourth-largest U.S. cable-TV provider, Altice CEO Patrick Drahi took the stage at a Goldman Sachs investor conference Thursday to proclaim his intention to bring European cost structures to the U.S. cable space.
"I like to pay as little as I can," he told told an audience of several hundred analysts and media investors, sounding disapproving notes about Cablevision's current operating costs and profit margins. "It's not about how many customers you have, it's about how much money you make."
Indeed, Drahi is expected to operate Cablevision much differently from the company's current owners and founders, the Dolan Family.
James Dolan, the company's chairman and CEO, has received criticism in recent years for focusing too intently on Madison Square Garden (MSG) , owner of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, among other sports franchises, and paying less attention to the cable-TV and broadband operator.
Analysts anticipate that Drahi will slash overhead by outsourcing parts of the business to contractors, decreasing management salaries and finding synergies throughout Cablevision's diverse set of holdings.
"There's at least $300 million in corporate overhead that can immediately be deleted," one conference attendee said.
In his presentation, Drahi espoused a no-frills management philosophy that pointed to the possibility of layoffs, or at least a broad restructuring.
"I don't need the guys who are top top top, just guys who are good enough," he said to the crowd. "We'll cut salaries so that we can run for the long term, not the short term."