Cablevision will purchase Bresnan Communications for $1.37 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports. Cablevision is the country’s fifth-largest cable provider; Bresnan is the 13th-largest.
One analyst says that the price Cablevision is paying is 8.3 times Bresnan’s earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization. Some say Cablevision is paying too much and question the wisdom of the purchase.
The chief operating officer at Cablevision, a man named Tom Rutledge, will oversee Bresnan, Cablevision said in a written statement  posted to Bresnan’s website.
That press release says that after the purchase is complete — late this year or early next year — Bresnan will be acquired by a newly formed Cablevision subsidiary.
The details of how this will affect Bresnan residential customers were not discussed in the release.
UPDATE: The Billings Gazette spoke with Bresnan spokesman Shawn Beqaj, who told the newspaper that Bresnan’s 690 employees in Montana “should see little change” as a result of the Cablevision deal.