Atlanta -- Cox Communications Inc. keeps closing the gap
between fourth and fifth place on the domestic MSO list.
Last week, it closed its $2.7 billion acquisition of
Multimedia Cablevision Inc., the cable-television division of Gannett Co. Inc., adding
524,500 subscribers in Kansas, Oklahoma and North Carolina to the fold.
Multimedia's biggest operations are in Kansas, with 307,000
customers in Wichita, Topeka and Manhattan. The company also has 121,500 customers in
Oklahoma City and 96,000 customers in North Carolina, including Greenville and Rocky
Mount.
The deal, announced in July, works out to about $5,100 per
subscriber, although Cox put its value at $4,500 per customer after tax benefits -- about
$350 million -- and other synergies are considered.
With the closing, Cox now has 6 million customers, nudging
closer to Charter Communications Inc., the No. 4 U.S. cable operator, with 6.2 million
subscribers.
The Multimedia systems, combined with Cox properties in
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Nebraska, create a central-states
"supercluster" with more than 2.4 million subscribers.
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Daniels &
Associates advised Cox.
