Feeding Frenzy: Who's Buying Cablevision? Short Fuse?

It didn’t even take a NY minute. No sooner had the Dolans yanked their bid to take Cablevision private then rumors of a potential sale of the MSO hit our inbox. "We believe CVC’s pullback represents a buying opportunity as we expect bids to materialize for CVC’s cable and content assets within the next 6-9 months," Oppenheimer’s Thomas Eagan wrote. Eagan, UBS’s Aryeh Bourkoff and Fulcrum’s Richard Greenfield pegged Time Warner Cable as the likely buyer of the cable assets. Greenfield speculated Comcast would be interested, "even if it meant shedding other cable assets (due to regulatory issues)." Eagan and Greenfield picked Viacom as the most likely place for the programming assets. A "Fuse sale could be imminent," Greenfield wrote. "New Viacom…[will provide] a more visible public market valuation to cable nets and possibly create a buyer for the Rainbow natl cable nets (AMC/WE/IFC)." Of course, rumors have been around for more than a decade that the Dolans were ready to unload Cablevision. CVC shares dropped 13% to $24.26 Tues on news of the pulled offer. Bourkoff predicted they would slide to $22.