Altice USA said it has reached an agreement to purchase Service Electric Cable TV of New Jersey for $150 million in cash.
The deal, which would expand Altice USA’s New Jersey footprint — it already has operations in Newark, Hoboken and other communities in the state — is expected to close in the third quarter.
Other Service Electric operations -- Service Electric Cable TV & Communications, which has operations in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania and parts of Hunterdon County, New Jersey; and Service Electric Cablevision, which covers Birdsboro, Hazelton and Sunbury, Penn. -- were not part of the deal.
Altice has said in the past that it would look to grow through acquisition, and the Service Electric purchase seems to jibe with that strategy.
Related: Q4 Video Sub Losses Rise, Broadband Growth Slows at Altice USA
In a conference call to discuss Q4 results, Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei said the Service Electric Cable TV of New Jersey systems were located in and around Sparta, N.J., adding that the properties have attractive broadband growth opportunities.
"If we had a hundred of these deals we'd love to have them because they are very, very profitable and accretive to us," Goei said. But later he added that he didn't expect many more like it.
"We don't have a pipeline of a lot of these," Goei said. "If they're available we pounce and try to go very quickly. ...There are not a lot of sellers out there. When there are they're interesting, but in terms of size, we don't see anything sizeable right now that's available." .
