This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on September 25, 2015.

LUXEMBROUG: Altice NV chief executive officer (CEO) Dexter Goei says the European company, which last week agreed to buy Cablevision Systems Corp for US$17.7 billion (RM77.78 billion), will take a break from its buying binge to focus on trimming costs and integrating cable systems.

Unless, that is, closely held Cox Communications Inc becomes available.

“We owe it to our investors, both on the debt and equity side, to pause on the pace of the acquisitions, particularly on the sizeable ones,” Goei said in an interview on Wednesday.

Altice’s stock rose 1.5% to €21.73 (RM106.90) in Amsterdam at 9.35am, giving the company a market value of €22 billion. Pausing doesn’t mean Altice is done with making deals, Goei’s boss, Patrick Drahi said last week — within hours of striking the Cablevision deal — that Altice wants to buy more cable providers and may eventually acquire a wireless carrier.

As for the length of the break, Goei says it could be a few months to a couple of years. “Six to nine months is nothing. We may pause for two years because we still have a huge amount of organic growth internally,” Goei said. “The only thing that would make us scratch our heads is if Cox came up and said, ‘I’m going to auction my business.’” — Bloomberg