April 19, 2012

CableFAX Daily Rundown

WOW! plans to acquire Knology for $1.5bln, or $750mln cash, a deal pegged at 7.3X multiple by Miller Tabak’s David Joyce and 7.65X forward EV/EBITDA multiple by Wells Fargo Securities’ Marci Ryvicker. Here’s what Knology pres Todd Holt told CableFAX about the deal and the companies’ well-aligned business strategies.
 
More top stories in the 4/19/12 issue of CableFAX Daily:
 
*Verizon Wireless announced it would conduct an open sale process for all of its 700MHz A and B spectrum licenses, but it did little to placate critics of its pending spectrum deal with cable operators. The company said it will use that spectrum in conjunction with the upper C band spectrum to deploy additional 4G LTE capacity, if it’s successful in acquiring additional AWS spectrum. But critics say this is evidence that Verizon has warehoused spectrum and will likely profit handsomely.
 
*NBCOlympics.com relaunched Wednesday. During the Games, it will live stream more than 3500 total programming hours, with most streaming available to authenticated MVPD customers. More on NBCOlympic’s streaming specifics.
 
*The focus of Style Network’s upfront this year was its upcoming rebrand, which will focus on fashion’s consumer element. “Style is big business,” said pres, Style Media, Salaam Coleman Smith. More on Style’s rebrand and new programming slate.