DALLAS, March 10 -- Sammons Communications announced Friday the Dallas-based telecommunications firm will sell two-thirds of its cable systems to another Dallas-based cable operator, Marcus Cable Co., for about $1 billion. Sammons' cable properties had been sought by a consortium of cable operators led by industry giant Tele-Communications Inc., but Marcus won out in part because Sammons officials were concerned that regulators would not approve a deal with TCI.
Marcus, along with the investment firms Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst and Goldman, Sachs & Co., will acquire Sammons cable systems serving about 650,000 subscribers in the Dallas area, California and the Midwest. Sammons owns a total of 78 systems serving 1.1 million subscribers in 18 states, but the exact breakdown of the deal was not immediately available, according to Marcus Cable spokesman Roy Winnick. The deal with Marcus Cable will also allow most Sammons employees at the systems involved in the transaction to keep their jobs as the acquisitions will not overlap any of Marcus Cable's existing operations. Marcus Cable currently serves about 580,000 customers in Wisconsin, Texas, Alabama, Delaware and Maryland. On the other hand, federal regulators may well have objected to the sale of Sammons properties to the TCI-led consortium on anti-trust grounds, Winnick said. While still subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission, the deal with Marcus is expected to be concluded by the end of the year. Sammons' remaining cable systems are still up for sale, Winnick said.