FCC Allows Altice's Cablevision Purchase
FCC staff OK’d Altice’s roughly $18 billion purchase of Cablevision, as was expected (see 1512230046), with national security conditions sought by other agencies (see 1604210031). “Although we find that the public interest benefits are limited, the scales tilt in favor…
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of granting the Applications because of the absence of harms,” said a Tuesday order from the International, Media, Wireless and Wireline bureaus. A union and some others had concerns about the deal. “Based on the record evidence, we find the transaction is unlikely to have adverse competitive effects,” the order said. Per last month’s letter from DOJ, the FBI and the departments of Defense and Homeland Security that they were OK with the takeover as long as it was conditioned on the companies following a national security agreement, the bureaus made that agreement a condition of OK'ing Altice/Cablevision. The order also noted that Altice had told New York regulators it would provide 300 Mbps service to all Cablevision customers.