Deceased Owner Wanted Proceeds Donated to Foundationm
Daniels Cablevision is for sale following the death of its founder, cable television pioneer Bill Daniels.
Phil Urbina, a spokesman for the Carlsbad-based company, confirmed that Daniels Cablevision was on the market.
Bill Daniels’ will asked for the company to be sold to the highest bidder, Urbina said. The proceeds will go toward the Daniels Foundation, which aids the poor.
Repeated calls to officials at Daniels’ company, Daniels & Associates in Denver, were not returned.
Daniels himself became known as one of the country’s most successful cable television brokers after founding Daniels & Associates in 1958.
Daniels Cablevision, which Daniels launched in 1972, currently has 125 employees and serves 65,000 homes in North County.
The other two major cable companies in San Diego, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable, declined to go into detail about their interests in buying the company.
Cox was in discussions with Bill Daniels about purchasing the company several years ago, said Dan Novak, Cox’s director of programming and communications.
Now, Novak said, “It’s a well-managed system and beyond that, whether we would explore purchasing it is an undetermined issue.”
Dan Ballister, spokesman for Time Warner, said his company doesn’t comment publicly about its interests in obtaining new properties.
Western Integrated Networks, LLC, a Denver-based start-up that plans to offer television, telephone and high-speed Internet access to cities across the country , and announced in early February that San Diego is among those cities , is not likely to buy the company.
“The architecture we’re using is too far advanced from what most legacy or current cable systems are designed and operating at,” said Bill Mahon, Western’s senior vice president for franchising and governmental relations.
Mahon hadn’t received an information booklet on the company, and didn’t know for certain whether they had been distributed.
The comprehensive booklets, also called offering memorandums, are typically distributed to companies that are considered serious prospective buyers, Mahon said.
Daniels, 79, had died March 7 after a long illness.
Daniels also was known for his philanthropy, having donated $22 million to the University of Denver, and several gifts to California State University San Marcos.
Daniels’ $1 billion estate will now go to the Daniels Foundation, according to reports.
