Cablevision boss James Dolan — seen herewatching his Knicks play — may be feeling lonely after the recent exodus of highlevel execs from the Bethpage, LI, company.t (EPA)
Cablevision Chief Executive Jim Dolan is emptying his bench.
Dolan — who is also chairman of Madison Square Garden, home of the the Knicks basketball team — is shaking up the New York cable operator in a bid to jump-start growth and boost the sagging stock, prompting a steady stream of executive departures.
His moves are spurring speculation — once again — that he’s planning to sell or take the Bethpage, LI, company private. Wall Street has long viewed the company as an attractive takeover target for Time Warner Cable or another larger cable operator.
The rumor mill kicked into high gear in December, when Cablevision lost its well-respected chief operating officer, Tom Rutledge, to rival Charter Communications. Rutledge followed John Bickham, the president of cable operations, out the door, along with CFO Mike Huseby, who quit in June.
Now at least three more senior executives are headed for the exits. Jim Blackley, executive vice president of corporate engineering and technology, will exit in May, while Kathleen Mayo, EVP of consumer operations, is out at the end of March. The departures were first reported by Multichannel News.
And last week, Cablevision announced that marketing chief Jonathan Hargis would leave at the end of the month.
“There’s something going down when you lose the [head] of cable, the head of technology, the head of marketing and the head of operations,” said one cable industry veteran.
Other senior sales executives are also said to be eyeing the exits, although Cablevision officials said no one else had resigned.
BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield, a vocal critic of Cablevision, said Dolan has done little to articulate his new vision for the company — publicly at least.
“It’s less of a brain drain than Dolan reasserting his imprint on day-to-day operations,” Greenfield told The Post.
“I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it’s a dramatic turn of events.”
Cablevision shares have lost 40 percent of their value in the past 12 months as it faces increased competition from Verizon’s FiOS TV service. The company has been losing basic video subscribers, although it has added high-speed Internet and telephone customers.
Dolan is acting as CEO, COO and head of the cable unit, while his wife, Senior EVP Kristin Dolan, executes the marketing strategy as executive vice president of product management and marketing.
Cablevision has drafted a former executive, Wilt Hildenbrand, to take over Blackley’s engineering role. The company also hired another engineering executive, Kathleen Koulouf, to advise on software design.
“As Cablevision evolves into a more competitive and customer-focused organization, executive changes are to be expected,” the company said in a statement. “It is an occurrence that is inevitable as we continue to grow and transform as a company.”
On top of everything else, Dolan-controlled MSG also lost Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni yesterday.
Dolan rarely gives press interviews but has told analysts that he’s focused on improving customer relations and product experience, such as the user interface design.