Cablevision Board To Debate Voom Fate

[GadgetRick]

Hmm...

People like Dolan don't get rich by playing it safe.

Most of the posters on this thread do not understand the entrepreneur.
It is all about the vision, and creating that vision. It is not about the money.
Sr. in an entrepreneur, his son is a manager.

You're correct in saying people don't get rich by playing it safe, however, they STAY rich by playing it safe. How much risk do you really think Dolan Sr. has taken with Voom? He's, what 78 or 79 years old now and, it's not like it cost him anything out of his pocket. Oh sure, it costs in stock value but the stock will bounce right back once Voom is sold/closed. So, in reality, Dolan Sr. has taken little to no risk in his venture.

Again, I'd be shocked if he pooled his OWN money to try and buy Voom. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if he was talking to investors trying to raise funds to purchase it. I just don't think he'll get a very warm reception from them.

Sr. WAS an entrepreneur, now he is a business person. The two just don't mix (in the long run). If it was so personal to him he would have (basically) figured out a way to make it work. He DOES still have control of the company afterall...

I don't want to take anything away from what the guy has done. He's done a lot but he's just not going to spend his own money on this thing (IMHO).

The Rickster

 

[vurbano]

They need to get bids from South America or investors to offer services there. Ever taken a good look from the satellite view. Its right over them.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/satellite.html

 

[riffjim4069]

They need to get bids from South America. Ever taken a good look from the satellite view. Its right over them.

I never thought of that, but it seems to me that someone would have to drill holes in the dish to prevent it from turning into a bird bath.

 

[SactoCal]

with all thats going on with the dolans, there is no way he replied to him! but thats just my opinion.

I got the same reply, its a canned message I guess. I also cc'd jdolan@voom.com. No response yet from that address.

Response was as follows:

Dear Mr. Craig

Thank you for your very welcome comments about Voom. I am circulating your message to our staff.

Charles Dolan

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Just was sent this...

Memo Spells Doom for Voom
By George Mannes
Senior Writer
1/20/2005 12:38 PM EST
URL: http://www.thestreet.com/tech/georgemannes/10203770.html

Cablevision (CVC:NYSE) is trying to sell Voom, and members of the cable operator's controlling family may be buyers, according to what appears to be an internal company memo.


The memo, if authentic, confirms previous reports that Cablevision's board has been divided over the fate of its money-bleeding startup satellite service, and that a majority of directors were in favor of giving up on the venture.

The memo also serves to hearten many Cablevision analysts and investors, given the prevailing belief outside of Cablevision that the Voom HDTV-focused satellite service has little chance of competing profitably with the likes of DirecTV (DTV:NYSE) and EchoStar (DISH:Nasdaq) .

Cablevision's shares rose 77 cents Thursday to trade at $25.15.

A Cablevision spokesman didn't return a call requesting comment.

On Wednesday evening, the Internet site SatelliteGuys.US posted what purported to be a memo out of Cablevision's Rainbow Media Enterprises programming unit, addressed to RME's staff.

The memo, purporting to be from Charles Dolan -- chairman of both Cablevision and Rainbow -- and Tom Dolan -- Charles' son and CEO of Rainbow -- reports that on Tuesday, Cablevision's board, in a split vote, resolved "to sell or dispose of Rainbow DBS; i.e., VOOM and VOOM 21."

"It is our expectation that RDBS will be offered for sale as an operating business," continues the memo. "Potential bidders for RDBS include members of the Dolan family."

On Thursday, Fulcrum Global Partners analyst Richard Greenfield issued a report indicating that the memo -- which he reprinted but which appears to have been pulled from the SatelliteGuys.US site -- appeared to confirm Voom's impending sale.

"While we have not been able to confirm its authenticity with CVC corporate management," wrote Greenfield, "we have confirmed with two different Rainbow Media employees that such a memo was sent out yesterday afternoon by Charles and Tom Dolan."

Greenfield, who like other analysts on Wall Street is of the opinion that Voom was a value-devouring lost cause of Cablevision's, has a buy rating on the stock.

One would suppose that Greenfield would not be passing along the memo without some confidence in its authenticity, given the NASD's recent enforcement action against a colleague of his. Last Friday, the NASD announced it had fined Fulcrum wireless telecom analyst Walt Piecyk $75,000 on charges, which Piecyk neither admitted nor denied, that Piecyk had circulated a negative rumor about RF Micro Devices (RFMD:Nasdaq) without conducting "a reasonable inquiry into whether there was a basis for the rumor."

 

[mike123abc]

It looks to me that the CVC board really decided to put the pressure on C. Dolan to do something with VOOM and do it quick. I suspect that if it came down to it they would continue to finance the system for a few months just to keep its value up as a working system with subscribers.

From the reports and the "memo" it looks to me that the board said your time is up, come up with a solution pronto, CVC is not going to suffer the cash drain another quarter.

 

[rollerfink]

Wow, SatelliteGuys.US is famous! Hopefully you;ll make the wall street journal tomorrow.

 

[rollerfink]

Wow, SatelliteGuys.US is famous! Hopefully you;ll make the wall street journal tomorrow.

hahahaha and i posted that before i saw this from the WSJ reporter...

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=43477

 

[gutter]

I got the same reply, its a canned message I guess. I also cc'd jdolan@voom.com. No response yet from that address.
That is not the best address to reach James. his email is jdolan@cablevision.com

 

[klen]

I just heard that Scott was going to be on the cover of Time Magazine next week. Can anyone validate this?

-k

 

[FrankJo]

The real asset for any buyer is the satellite and the channels. If Dolan gets it, he will try to keep it running it as it is now.

If the buyer is D* or E*, they will only be purchasing it for the assets, which means your screens would go dark, and those assets would be rolled into their respective portfolios i.e. add Vooms channels and use their satellite. Neither would have any interest in taking over the subs and customer service as separate entities. This has been the worst aspect of Voom as a business. Luring Voom customers to Dish would not be difficult if they offered a similar level of HD as Voom. Don't forget SD! Most folks are still watching SD. The real jewel is the channels, that Dish would be able to offer - in both SD and HD (movies, rave, equator would be popular in both SD and HD).

E* is better positioned to get use from the satellite and it's transponders. Whether they want to do this is another story.

You are getting a blow by blow picture of the way large corporations do business. It is quite fascinating, indeed.

 

[ddlsmith]

It is true! AND the Dolans will be on the cover of RING magazine!!

 

[mwgiii]

Wow, all this press is making for heavy traffic.

Almost 1500 people on the board.

 

[gutter]

I just heard that Scott was going to be on the cover of Time Magazine next week. Can anyone validate this?

-k

Well there is talk inside Cablevision that Time-Warner could buy the entire company. So why not Scott on the cover of Time?

 

[rtt2]

The 21 exclusive channels can't survive without - Rainbow Media

Rainbow Media was in charge of aquiring, scheduling, producing all aspects of these channels. This is the very reason Rainbow Media was to be spun off at the time.
http://www.rainbow-media.com/rainbow/index.jsp
http://www.rainbow-media.com/tech/index.html

 

[SactoCal]

The two things I focused on within the memo were:

It is our expectation that RDBS will be offered for sale as an operating business. To do otherwise risks minimizing the return to Cablevision. Sale of RDBS requires RDBS to continue to operate normally. Should RDBS, the business, be sold, RDBS staff will simply work under new ownership.

and:

Potential bidders for RDBS include members of the Dolan family. We love working with a skilled group as dedicated as the RDBS staff, and we love the VOOM project.

I am going to remain optimistic.

@party

 

[Walter L.]

SatelliteGuys has been contacted by VOOM officials this morning.
They have asked us to remove the internal memo that was posted on our forum yesterday.
We are going to honor their request. Hope, you will support this decision.
Please do not repost the memo!

BTW, my re-post of the memo at a similar AVSForum thread mysteriously dissapeared. I didn't get any notification from the mods. Coincidence

 

[madpoet]

I understand the decision to pull the memo, though given the huge amount of attention it seems like it a) was valid, and b) is going to be posted and discussed regardless . My understanding is that CVC can't really comment on it while the unit is for sale, and perhaps they saw the leaked memo as something that would get them in trouble with regulators. Regardless, I remain confident that my Voom box will keep functioning for the immediate future and I hope a buyer is found that supports and embraces Voom and the user base, as meager as we might be!

 

[FrankJo]

rtt2,

None of these entities have been spun off. Cablevision will keep it's media assets. Voom will be sold as it's own entity. They don't have to sell it as an all-in-one package. Those assets make money for Cablevision, Voom does not.

 

[fredfa]

re MarcelV:

As a publicly traded company, they can not make more information publicly available till a sale is finalized. This is common, because it may have great consequences on the stock trade.

Surely you are kidding?
Would you like to quote me the SEC law that allegedly provides for this?
Obviously CVC can (and for the sake of shareholders should) make some comment on the news reports -- which seem to be having an effect on CVC's stock prices -- that are circulating.
And as just as one obvious example to piont out the fallacy in your assertion, Adelphia has been commenting all along (though not in specifics) as its sale process proceeds.