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Voom Shuts Down
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
NEW YORK -- Cablevision Systems Corp., a New York-area cable television provider, is shutting down its high-definition satellite television service called Voom after failing to reach an agreement with its own chairman, who wanted to buy the remaining assets of the business.
The announcement from the Bethpage, N.Y.-based company late Monday came amid a fractious battle among members of the Dolan family, which runs Cablevision. Charles Dolan, the company's chairman and founder, had championed the service, while his son James, who is CEO, opposed it.
Last week Cablevision said it would take 4.9 million in charges as it exited the satellite business. Investors had long been skeptical of the plan, which would have put Cablevision in a high-stakes showdown against two entrenched and well-funded competitors, EchoStar Communications Corp., owner of the DISH satellite TV service, and The DirecTV Group Inc.
In December Cablevision said it would sell Voom's satellite to EchoStar for 0 million in cash, and then in February Charles Dolan and his son Tom entered a tentative agreement to acquire the rest of Voom's assets. However, they failed to consummate a deal by a Feb. 28 deadline.
Voom failed to find an audience with consumers since being launched in the fall of 2003. Voom posted an operating loss of 1.4 million on revenues of .9 million for all of 2004, including the 4.9 million in write-downs.
In its most recent quarterly regulatory filing, Cablevision disclosed last fall that the Voom service had only 26,000 customers. In its statement late Monday, Cablevision said it would continue providing service to its current Voom customers for at least 30 days. A Cablevision spokesman declined to comment beyond the statement.
Despite the apparently definitive decision from Cablevision to shut down the Voom service, Tom and Charles Dolan released a separate statement through an entity they control saying they were still interested in completing the acquisition of Voom's assets and funding the venture on their own.
The announcement signaled that the family feud surrounding the Voom venture had not yet been settled, which could fuel more speculation that the elder Dolan might sell some of his holdings of Cablevision stock in order finance Voom.
Cablevision also owns New York's Madison Square Garden as well as the sports teams that play there, including the New York Knicks and the NHL's Rangers. Cablevision is in the midst of a public showdown with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg over Bloomberg's plans to build a stadium on Manhattan's West side, which would compete with the Garden.
Cablevision shares fell 69 cents, or 2.2 percent, to close at .37 in trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have risen steadily over the past seven months, nearly doubling from their 52-week low of .13 reached last August, on expectations that the company would get rid of Voom and possibly be put up for sale. Its underlying cable TV business has also been growing strongly thanks to rapid growth of premium services like high-speed data and voice-over-Internet phone offerings.
