As his company looks at ways to wring out $900 million in cost savings over the next several years in the U.S. cable asset formerly known as Cablevision, Altice USA Chief Executive Dexter Goei has reportedly paid $31 million for a five-story multi-family building in Greenwich Village. He plans to convert it into what New York real estate site The Real Deal says will be a “megamansion.”
The publication, which referred to Goei as a “telecom hotshot,” said it obtained documents showing that Goei purchased the 11,000-square-foot property in May, around the time that Europe’s Altice NV completed its $17.7 billion purchase of Bethpage, N.Y.-based Cablevision.
Altice representatives wouldn't offer official comment to FierceCable. But they did say that cost savings are being put back into the business for such things as network upgrades and broadband speed increases.
Goei’s building is reportedly located just down the block from another proposed “megamansion” being developed by Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker.
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So why is it news that Goei, who had a successful 16-year career at banks JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, would like to buy a nice house?
It is interesting in the context of the austerity culture Goei is spearheading not only at the former Cablevision, but also at Suddenlink Communications, which was also purchased last year by Altice for $9.1 billion.
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In a June Wall Street Journal story, a Suddenlink employee described “investment committee” meetings under Altice, in which the new owner even scrutinized ice-machine vendors.
“That’s our whole philosophy,” Altice USA CFO Charles Stewart told WSJ. “It triggers a discussion at a very nitty-gritty level, which is where the difference is made.”