A lack of big cable deals has taken its toll on longtime industry broker
Daniels & Associates, which laid off nine associates (16 percent of its
staff) in its Denver and New York offices.
Executive vice president Bob Russo also said two Daniels veterans will retire
at the end of the year: associate Bruce Dickinson and Tim David, a member of the
firm's executive committee. But he added that their departures aren't tied to
the cuts.
Russo said the company also cut the corporate chef at its Denver
headquarters, and employees in Denver and New York will no longer be served free
lunch.
Daniels, which was founded in 1958 by late cable pioneer Bill Daniels,
brokered dozens of key cable mergers, acquisitions and swaps over the years. But
the company has brokered fewer deals as cable merger-and-acquisition activity
has died down since the late 1990s.
'The downturn in M&A activity and corporate-financing activity, which
began in 2001, is continuing into the foreseeable future,' Russo said. 'We're
having to take several steps to ensure our profitability in what looks like an
extremely challenging year ahead.'
Russo said Daniels completed 30 transactions during the first half of the
year, down from the 47 the firm closed during the same period in 2001.
In April, before Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas and his
sons quit, Rigas hired Daniels to advise Adelphia on system
sales.
