The Dolan family, owners of the former Cablevision Systems, settled its lawsuit against the Altice USA hours before the case was scheduled to go to trial, according to the Delaware Court of Chancery. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
“The Dolan Family and Altice USA announce that the litigation related to News 12 has been resolved and settled to both parties’ satisfaction,” the family said in a brief statement issued Sept. 3.
The Dolans sued Altice on Sept. 4, 2018, claiming the cable company violated its deal to purchase Cablevision Systems from the company in 2016, when it fired a number of employees at the cable operator’s News 12 division. As part of the deal to purchase Cablevision for $17.7 billion in 2016, Altice apparently promised to maintain News 12’s 462 full-time equivalent employees and operate the news operations for a five-year period in substantially the same way as the Dolans had. Altice laid off about 70 employees in the spring of 2017 and last year was making plans to terminate more, according to the suit.
News 12 Networks consists of seven cable-delivered local news television channels serving Long Island, Westchester, the Hudson Valley, southwest Connecticut, the Bronx, Brooklyn and New Jersey.
