Altice in talks to sell Cheddar News to private equity firm

Altice USA is in talks to sell the financial news streaming service Cheddar News to Los Angeles-based private equity firm Regent LP, reports Alex Sherman of CNBC.

Sherman reports, “No deal is assured and discussions around structure are still fluid, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private.

“In one iteration of a potential transaction, Altice USA and Regent have discussed a deal where no money will initially exchange hands, one of the people said. Instead, Altice USA would participate in Cheddar’s future performance as part of a so-called ‘earn out’ structure. If Cheddar meets certain performance targets, Altice USA would collect proceeds in future years that could amount to about $50 million based on internal projections, the person said.

“Cheddar was founded in 2016 by Jon Steinberg, who built the company as a business news streaming service aimed at millennials. Altice USA acquired Cheddar for $200 million in 2019.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.