This morning Mediacom Communications released “preliminary highlights” for the fourth quarter and all of last year ahead of next Friday’s shareholder vote on whether to accept CEO and Chairman Rocco Commisso’s bid to take the company private.
Mediacom, the nation’s eighth-largest cable operator, said in its release that the reported results remained subject to adjustments once the company’s audit for last year was completed.
On Nov. 15, Mediacom announced it had entered into a definitive merger agreement with Commisso and his associates to take the company private. Commisso first proposed buying up the common stock shares he didn’t already own in June of last year for $6 per share.
A special meeting of stockholders is slated for Friday, during which time they’ll vote on selling the common stock shares that Commisso doesn’t own for $8.75 per share in cash.
A spokesman for Mediacom said this morning that the merger agreement could be finalized after Friday’s vote, which would mean the company would no longer have to file an earnings release after the 2010 audit is completed or to hold an investors’ conference call.
Mediacom said it was releasing the preliminary results to provide its stockholders with additional financial information prior to the upcoming special meeting of stockholders.
For the fourth quarter, Mediacom expects revenues to be $378.9 million, a 2 percent increase from the prior-year period. Mediacom reported revenues of $374.3 million in the third quarter.
Mediacom expects its adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization to be $138.3 million, which was unchanged from the prior-year period.
The company’s operating income is expected to be $73.8 million, a 4.4 percent decline from the prior-year period.
Mediacom didn’t report its anticipated net loss for the fourth quarter. The company’s third-quarter net loss was $4 million, or 6 cents per basic share, compared with a net loss of $10 million, or 15 cents per basic share, in the prior-year period.
In the fourth quarter, Mediacom projected revenue-generating units (RGUs) to grow by 23,000, including: digital customer net gain of 14,000, data customer net gain of 11,000 and a phone customer net gain of 8,000. Mediacom expects to lose 10,000 basic video subscribers in the fourth quarter, which would be a slight improvement over the 13,000 basic video subscribers lost in the third quarter.
For the full year, Mediacom expects:
- Revenues to be $1.499 million, a 2.6 percent increase from the prior year
- Adjusted OIBDA to be $548.4 million, a 1.2 percent increase from the prior year
- Operating income to be $298.4 million, a 0.5 percent decline from the prior year
- Capital expenditures to be $237.4 million, compared with $236.7 million in the prior year
- RGUs to grow by 113,000, or 3.8 percent, to 3.094 million, comprising: basic subscriber net loss of 45,000, ending the year at 1.193 million; digital customer net gain of 53,000, ending the year at 731,000; data customer net gain of 60,000, ending the year at 838,000; and phone customer net gain of 45,000, ending the year at 332,000.