Rainbow Spin-off is dead

[Seanb61]

CVC Cablevision suspends Rainbow Media spin-off (22.11 )

Cablevision Systems Corporation announced today that its Board of Directors has decided to suspend pursuing the spin-off of its Rainbow Media Enterprises subsidiary, in its previously announced form, and instead to pursue strategic alternatives for its Rainbow DBS business.

source http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1053112/000089183604000452/sc0216.txt

 

[bcope9]

"Strategic Alternative" could mean a sell or merger, IMHO.

 

[robert luzzi]

voom

one foot inthe grave

one foot on a bananna peel

 

[Indy]

Yep, their looking for a buyer for the whole mess or the satellite and orbital slot. If no buyer pull the plug on the programing and lease the transponder space to someone else. Do we here the count down beginning? 10 ... 9 ... 8 ..7..............................

 

[vurbano]

Voom still has big pockets behind them. As far as I am concerned this is great news.

 

[andrzej]

Yep, their looking for a buyer for the whole mess or the satellite and orbital slot. If no buyer pull the plug on the programing and lease the transponder space to someone else. Do we here the count down beginning? 10 ... 9 ... 8 ..7..............................

That's your countdown to what Indy? More HD channels or DVR?

 

[Lucky]

I hate to say it, but I think VOOM is done. And Soon.

 

[dnyce]

???

I can't believe it. Voom is done?! Just like that....
Sounds like Cabelvision had their team of analyst sitting in a room crunching numbers and they just couldn't make Voom make sense and are giving up.
I guess you can only loose money for so long.
Sad sad sad day....

Insiders! Where are you?! Did we not see this coming??

 

[Indy]

That's your countdown to what Indy? More HD channels or DVR?

The count down is to the inevitable implosion of a miss managed brilliant idea for a HD satellite provider named Voom. I hate to see Voom go, but their satellite flew much higher than the business prospectus ever will. 6...5...4...

 

[r.jones1116]

All these speculations based on recent data? If they are stopping the spin off, maybe it's because they are finally seeing the possibility of being in the black.
How do you naysayers like your crow???

 

[compson]

The good news is that, at least for now, they're not going to just shut it down. "Strategic" normally means merger, as in, they would dump VOOM into a new co in which they would have less than 100% ownership. It could mean, I guess, that a buyer would take VOOM and merge it into the buyer's company. It's possible that they were contacted by a potential buyer and, for that reason, cancelled the spinoff. Echostar (I cringe at the thought) is obviously a potential buyer, but there could be others.

 

[vurbano]

Is Indy the new Pradike????

 

[GadgetRick]

Here we go again...

I must say, I do like Satellite Guys because there is a lot of GOOD SOLID information available, however, I also must say it's quite annoying at times. Why? Well, times like this when everyone seems to be an expert and KNOWS, just KNOWS what's coming when there is little to no information available. I'm not sure how anyone can make a statement like Voom is dead or Voom will survive at this point in the game. We know so little about what's happening within Voom it's tough to guess.

In reading the blurb which was released you can certainly take this more than one way. You can be one of the doomsdayers and say Voom is dead but why? The blurb didn't say, "Voom has not been making money so we're canceling the spin off in preparation to close the doors." So it's tough to make a case for this argument.

You could also take it as Voom has one (or more) suitors looking to buy them out and they required CV to cancel the spinoff. Hard to make this argument but there have been rumors about Voom being bought so at least there's some information out there (although just rumors) which may point to this path.

You could also take it as CV just decided it didn't make sense (at this point) to spend the millions of dollars it obviously costs to spin a company the size of Rainbow off. Maybe they expected Voom to have more subscribers and be closer to profitability than it is now and it just doesn't make financial sense (in CV's eyes) to spin them off.

Anyway, there are a lot of reasons they could have done this, some good (for us) and some bad. Why don't we all just sit tight and see what happens. If Voom fails they fail. I will lose no sleep over it. I won't beat my wife over it and I certainly am not going to run around saying, "I told you so!" Remember, Voom does have a lot of people working for them and, if Voom were to fail, they'd be out of a job. If you've ever been on the receiving end of losing a job in a failed company the LAST thing you want to hear/read is a bunch of people saying, "I told you so!"

The Rickster

 

[sixy]

I know it's a long shot, but I'm hoping that their "strategic alternatives" somehow allows them to use Cablevision contracts to give us INHD, HD On-Demand, and any others.

 

[Hoopnoop]

Well, I've been holding off on my skepticism but I think this may be the nail in the coffin for Voom. Cablevision will certainly not keep them on. A sell-off to D* or E* seems very likely. I think the best case scenario for Voom subscribors is a sell to Dish and expanded HD offerings there. The worst case scenario is that the Voom assets are sold piecemeal, the programming is shut down and we are left out in the cold. Whatever happens will probably happen soon as Cablevision will not want to have a cash flow drain for long.

 

[Sean Mota]

Not only here we go again but here are the same "in the know" people going again...

source

A spokesman for Cablevision said the company would not comment beyond the filing.

He declined to say if strategic alternatives could include anything other than a sale of Rainbow, whose assets include cable channels American Movie Classics and The Independent Film Channel, a variety of on-demand programming services, the Voom satellite television service, and motion picture production and distribution businesses.

Maybe the end is near (as the naysayers say so much...). They really have a crystal ball which they borrowed from the "wall street" experts In reality, at this point it could mean a sell out or it could mean that they cannot afford to spin it off because the new company will not be able to sustain itself. I won't say statements like "Voom is dead" without backing it up with "inside information" which no one has, except VOOM/Rainbow. As a lot of us have said before, time will only tell whether VOOM will be sold or will survive.

As of today, there is a still signal being broadcasted so they are still in business. Until the day that the signal goes off the air, they will still be in business whether you like it or not. Of course, I invested $0 on it and got what I think ,a lot from it and I am still getting a whole lot from it today.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I don't see this as a nail in the coffin. I think this is actually good for VOOM and I am surprised this was not announced a month ago.

I do believe we will see a buyout or new partnership sometime in the new year. And I am also starting to believe that it won't be Echostar. If I had to guess I would say that Microsoft or Disney would be a good fit.

For those avoiding VOOM because they think that its going to die, you are people who really don't care about HDTV, yet are the same people saying they want more HDTV, now while your prediting death for VOOM and still saying you want more HDTV I am enjoying 30+ channels on HD ow from VOOM. If VOOM should die I will have enjoyed LOTS of High Definition while it was alive.

Happy Holidays all!

 

[yanks2402]

...to guess I would say that Microsoft or Disney would be a good fit.

Well not many Disney shareholders would go for it...had it been about 8 months ago when Disney was a takeover target by Comcast, probably in a heartbeat.

However, if Microsoft gets into the game, it could get very interesting. Now I am not saying anything, but they probably are looking for a way to utilize all of there new "media center" and interactive tv features that they have spent billions on.

Voom would survive for a long time with the deeeeep pockets of Microsoft if they got involved.

 

[zubinh]

That's your countdown to what Indy? More HD channels or DVR?

This is the quote of an individual who now officially has lost all touch with reality.

 

[Indy]

What Voom needed to do BEFORE the Christmas season was partner with a company to offer both a HD STB and a 34" wide screen display like Dish did. What is killing them is the service is TOO HD specific for anyone without a wide screen 16:9 display. If Voom had the offer like Dish has going with the whole HD in a box deal I am sure people would flock to the service with a $800 to $1000 investment and a 2 year contract to VaVaVoom. Beter yet put the equipment purchase on a monthly payoff for 6 months. Just a thought.