Cable analysts: Altice's Drahi will target Cablevision, Cox, Mediacom

While European telecommunications magnate Patrick Drahi and his Luxembourg-based firm Altice SA could counter Charter Communications' proposed $56.7 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable, at least one media investment analyst says it's far more likely that he'll turn his attention to another US cable property. "While it is still possible that Altice counters on TWC, we do not believe that it can match Charter [and backer John Malone's] funding firepower and will ultimately lose out," wrote Macquarie Capital's Kevin Smithen. "In our opinion, Altice is more likely to turn its attention to Cablevision or privately-held Cox or Mediacom, in an effort to gain more fixed-line scale in order to compete against Charter and Comcast."

Cablevision has seen its stock price steadily rise in recent weeks, with CEO James Dolan aggressively stating a desire for a takeover and investors seeing the company as ripe for M&A. Cablevision's trading price was up just over 2 percent to $25.52 a share as of late-day trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock is up over 22 percent since May 19.