, Columnist
Billionaire Drahi Needs to Score
Altice chief needs to show U.S. acquisitions will pay off
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Patrick Drahi's bagging of the French TV rights to English Premier League soccer isn't quite up there with Rupert Murdoch's sports rights largesse. But it does show one thing: the billionaire cable investor knows there's more to running a business than just taking an ax to costs.
Drahi's Altice has delivered impressive savings in France since his Numericable cable operator bought phone carrier SFR from Vivendi this year. In the third quarter it lifted operating cash flow by 53 percent and delivered an adjusted Ebitda margin of almost 38 percent.