Reports: Altice In Talks To Buy Suddenlink, Also Eyes Time Warner Cable

(RTTNews) - French cable and telecommunications group Altice S.A. (ATCV.OB) is in advanced talks to buy the seventh-largest U.S. cable operator Suddenlink Communications and is also eyeing an acquisition of the second-largest U.S. cable operator Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC), according to media reports on Tuesday.

An acquisition of Suddenlink Communications, which could be announced this week, could reportedly be valued at $8 billion to $10 billion, including debt. Meanwhile, Altice is said to have made initial contact with Time Warner Cable.

Altice is controlled by French billionaire Patrick Drahi, who once worked for U.S. cable tycoon John Malone. Altice is a multinational cable and telecommunications company with a presence in France, Israel, Belgium & Luxembourg, Portugal, French West Indies/Indian Ocean Area and Dominican Republic and Switzerland.

Altice provides cable-based high quality pay television, fast broadband Internet and fixed line telephony as well as mobile telephony services to residential customers and corporate customers in certain countries. The company has a market capitalization of 28.7 billion euros.

Altice said in December 2014 that it agreed to acquire the Portuguese assets of Portugal Telecom SGPS S.A. (PT) from Brazilian wireless carrier Oi S.A. (OIBR) in a deal valued at 7.4 billion euros, or $9.2 billion.

St. Louis-based Suddenlink is majority owned by private-equity firm BC Partners Ltd. and Canadian pension fund CPPIB, which together acquired the company in 2012 in a deal valued at $6.6 billion from an investor group that included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS).

Led by CEO Jerry Kent, Suddenlink has operations spanning states including Texas, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Arizona.

A cross-border acquisition of Suddenlink by Altice would mark Drahi's foray in to the U.S. cable market, which is being reshaped by a series of mergers. It could also put him in direct competition with John Malone.

Malone is the chairman of Charter Communications Inc.'s (CHTR) largest shareholder, Liberty Broadband Corp. (LBRDA, LBRDK). Charter Communications, the fourth-largest cable operator in the U.S., has reportedly reached out to Time Warner Cable for talks about a possible merger of the two cable operators.

The Wall Street Journal had reported in early May that Malone contacted Time Warner Cable's CEO Rob Marcus recently to express Charter's interest in pursuing friendly deal talks.

Malone's call to Marcus came after Comcast Corp. (CMCSA, CMCSK) said that its $45.2 billion merger with Time Warner Cable as well as its deal with Charter Communications have been terminated amid regulatory resistance.

TWC closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $158.00, up $0.49 or 0.31 percent on a volume of 2.43 million shares. In after-hours, the stock further gained $2.10 or 1.33 percent to $160.10.