Deal to Save Voom May Be in Works
By PETER GRANT Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL March 7, 2005
Executives working for Voom, the satellite service owned by Cablevision Systems Corp., have assured Sears, Roebuck & Co., the largest retailer of the service, that they likely have a deal that will keep the service going, a Sears spokeswoman said last night. Those assurances are a sign that Charles Dolan, Cablevision's chairman, may succeed in his bid to save the Voom service, which has been at the center of a bitter boardroom and family battle at the nation's-sixth largest cable operator.
Cablevision's new board is scheduled to meet today to consider Mr. Dolan's last-minute effort to buy the service himself. Last week, Mr. Dolan ousted three board members who had voted two times with the majority of board members to shut down Voom, his pet project for 10 years.
Mr. Dolan has spoken about Voom's status with Tasso Koken, Sears's vice president of home electronics, according to Lauren Jiles-Johnson, a Sears spokeswoman. She says that Sears is continuing to sell the service because Mr. Dolan indicated to Mr. Koken as recently as last week that they will be able to keep the service going. "Tasso has been in very close communication with the Voom people, and it looks like it will work out," she said. A Cablevision spokesman said that Charles Dolan last spoke to Mr. Koken weeks ago, but the spokesman couldn't comment about more-recent conversations between Mr. Koken and Voom officials.
Despite these assurances, a number of Sears stores have decided to stop selling Voom. Salesman at stores in Nebraska, Florida, Idaho, California and North Dakota contacted by The Wall Street Journal yesterday said they had discontinued selling the service. Ms. Jiles-Johnson said Sears stores that decided to take Voom off their shelves did so independently, probably on the basis of news reports about uncertainty surrounding Voom. The stores didn't get direction from the corporate office to stop selling the service, she said.
A cloud of uncertainty has hung over Voom since Cablevision's board first voted in January, over the objections of Mr. Dolan, to stop funding Voom and sell its only operational satellite to EchoStar Communications Corp., another satellite- TV operator. Charles Dolan's son, James Dolan, who is Cablevision's chief executive, voted with the majority, sparking a public falling out with his father.
Since then, Charles Dolan, 78 years old, has launched an all-out campaign to save the service, going so far last week as to replace three of the board members who voted against it. He also sent Voom employees an optimistic note predicting the service would continue and put up his own Voom Web site after the company took down the official site. Spokesmen for Mr. Dolan, Cablevision and EchoStar declined to comment.
After a committee of independent board members objected late last week, Charles Dolan's Voom Web site also went dark. But last night, the Voom Web site was back up again, although it wasn't accepting orders. Still, that was another sign that a deal to keep the service running may be at hand.
The new board, which now has four new members recently appointed by Charles Dolan, is today scheduled to consider Mr. Dolan's plan to save Voom by buying its remaining assets himself through a company he recently formed with another son, Tom Dolan. According to a Cablevision filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Charles Dolan has been holding talks with EchoStar to combine those assets with the Voom satellite that EchoStar just agreed to buy.
By PETER GRANT Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL March 7, 2005
Executives working for Voom, the satellite service owned by Cablevision Systems Corp., have assured Sears, Roebuck & Co., the largest retailer of the service, that they likely have a deal that will keep the service going, a Sears spokeswoman said last night. Those assurances are a sign that Charles Dolan, Cablevision's chairman, may succeed in his bid to save the Voom service, which has been at the center of a bitter boardroom and family battle at the nation's-sixth largest cable operator.
Cablevision's new board is scheduled to meet today to consider Mr. Dolan's last-minute effort to buy the service himself. Last week, Mr. Dolan ousted three board members who had voted two times with the majority of board members to shut down Voom, his pet project for 10 years.
Mr. Dolan has spoken about Voom's status with Tasso Koken, Sears's vice president of home electronics, according to Lauren Jiles-Johnson, a Sears spokeswoman. She says that Sears is continuing to sell the service because Mr. Dolan indicated to Mr. Koken as recently as last week that they will be able to keep the service going. "Tasso has been in very close communication with the Voom people, and it looks like it will work out," she said. A Cablevision spokesman said that Charles Dolan last spoke to Mr. Koken weeks ago, but the spokesman couldn't comment about more-recent conversations between Mr. Koken and Voom officials.
Despite these assurances, a number of Sears stores have decided to stop selling Voom. Salesman at stores in Nebraska, Florida, Idaho, California and North Dakota contacted by The Wall Street Journal yesterday said they had discontinued selling the service. Ms. Jiles-Johnson said Sears stores that decided to take Voom off their shelves did so independently, probably on the basis of news reports about uncertainty surrounding Voom. The stores didn't get direction from the corporate office to stop selling the service, she said.
A cloud of uncertainty has hung over Voom since Cablevision's board first voted in January, over the objections of Mr. Dolan, to stop funding Voom and sell its only operational satellite to EchoStar Communications Corp., another satellite- TV operator. Charles Dolan's son, James Dolan, who is Cablevision's chief executive, voted with the majority, sparking a public falling out with his father.
Since then, Charles Dolan, 78 years old, has launched an all-out campaign to save the service, going so far last week as to replace three of the board members who voted against it. He also sent Voom employees an optimistic note predicting the service would continue and put up his own Voom Web site after the company took down the official site. Spokesmen for Mr. Dolan, Cablevision and EchoStar declined to comment.
After a committee of independent board members objected late last week, Charles Dolan's Voom Web site also went dark. But last night, the Voom Web site was back up again, although it wasn't accepting orders. Still, that was another sign that a deal to keep the service running may be at hand.
The new board, which now has four new members recently appointed by Charles Dolan, is today scheduled to consider Mr. Dolan's plan to save Voom by buying its remaining assets himself through a company he recently formed with another son, Tom Dolan. According to a Cablevision filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Charles Dolan has been holding talks with EchoStar to combine those assets with the Voom satellite that EchoStar just agreed to buy.
