European-based Altice Looks To Buy Suddenlink
Johnathan Reeves with our content partner, KASU 91.9 FM reports:
A French-based company has entered into America’s cable market by expressing interest in purchasing St. Louis-based Suddenlink Communications. Altice is wanting to buy the company for just over nine-billion-dollars. Roby Brock with Talk Business and Politics tells why Suddenlink is attractive to Altice.
“There is a lot of industry consolidation right now, particularly in the telecom industry,” said Brock. “The world is shrinking now with the ease of international calls, video conferencing and streaming, and other services. A lot of big industry players are trying to make themselves bigger through similar acquisitions.”
Brock says Altice doesn’t have any properties in the United States and the deal would allow them to enter in the American market as they will likely try to grow globally. If the deal is finalized, Brock says customers are not expected to notice much changes.
“Any changes will more than likely be on the back-end of things, such as administrative changes, accounting functions, and even some marketing functions. Customers will likely not see any changes as a result of this deal.”
The deal is expected to close later this year. Suddenlink is the seventh largest US cable operator with services available in five states, including Arkansas.