Cablevision System Corp.'s founding family, the Dolans, who are currently attempting to take the cable company private in a $16.5 billion offer, will no longer fly on the company's dime, but don't expect to see them in coach or first class on a commercial airline, either. Instead, chairman Charles Dolan and his son, CEO James Dolan, have agreed to pay for their personal use of the company's private plane, according The New York Post.
The revelation was buried in a Cablevision SEC filing dated Nov. 22. Last year the Dolans logged $600,000 in personal travel on the Cablevision corporate jet — that would equal a lot of frequent flier miles had they flown commercially instead.
It's shocking that Cablevision and the Dolans hadn't come to a similar arrangement earlier in light of not only the corporate excesses uncovered at Tyco International Ltd., HealthSouth Corp. and others during the last five years, but more specifically the abuses at peer Adelphia Communications Corp., whose founding family's use of not only the corporate jet for pleasure, but their use of its treasury as a personal bank, drove it into bankruptcy.
It almost begs the question: Do the Dolans want to take Cablevision private so they can use the jet and other perks for personal gain without worrying about shareholders? —Matthew Wurtzel
See story from The New York Post
See Cablevision Dealwatch
See Adelphia profile from Bankruptcy Insider (subscription required)
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