Who owns Optimum? Ownership structure explained (2026)

When you pay an Optimum internet or cable bill, the money goes to Optimum Communications, one of the larger cable and broadband operators in the United States. The company was known as Altice USA until November 2025, when it renamed itself after the consumer brand customers already knew. The name changed. The owner did not.

That owner is Patrick Drahi, the telecom investor who built the Altice empire in Europe and bought two American cable companies, Suddenlink and Cablevision, in 2015 and 2016. He still controls the company through super-voting shares, even though public investors own most of its stock by count.

Optimum's ownership matters more than usual right now. The company carries about $25 billion of net debt, its shares trade near $1, and in 2026 Drahi moved some of its best assets into a new subsidiary while the company fought its creditors in court. This article explains who owns Optimum, how that structure came together, and why it sits at the center of one of the largest debt fights in American telecom.

Optimum's roots go back to Cablevision, which Charles Dolan founded in 1973 on Long Island. Cablevision built the Optimum brand in the New York metropolitan area and was controlled by the Dolan family for more than four decades.

In December 2015, Drahi's Altice bought a 70% stake in Suddenlink, a cable operator focused on the south-central United States, in a deal that valued it at about $9.1 billion. In June 2016, Altice closed its $17.7 billion acquisition of Cablevision, paying $34.90 per share in cash. The two businesses were combined as Altice USA, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2017. Suddenlink was folded into the Optimum brand in 2022, and the parent company took the Optimum name itself in November 2025.

Today the company is headquartered at 1 Court Square West in Long Island City, Queens. It sells broadband, video, home phone, and mobile service under the Optimum brand to about 4.2 million residential and business customers across 21 states, over a network passing roughly 10 million homes and businesses. It also owns a controlling 50.01% stake in Lightpath, a fiber business that serves enterprise customers, plus local news and advertising operations.

The business is shrinking. Revenue fell from $8.95 billion in 2024 to $8.59 billion in 2025, and second-quarter 2026 revenue of $2.02 billion was down 5.8% year over year. Residential broadband customers fell to about 3.71 million at the end of June 2026. The bright spot is mobile, where Optimum reached 724,000 lines after adding 50,000 in the quarter. Operating profitability is still solid: adjusted EBITDA was $785.7 million in the second quarter, a 38.8% margin, the kind of figure an EBITDA calculator helps put in context against a debt load this large.

Optimum Communications is listed on the NYSE, but it is not widely controlled. It is a "controlled company" under NYSE rules, which exempts it from having a majority of independent directors or a nominating committee. Its filings describe it as majority-owned by Patrick Drahi through Next Alt S.à r.l. There is no separate parent company above it. Drahi's personal holding company is the controlling shareholder.

The company has two main classes of stock. Class A shares trade publicly and carry one vote each. Class B shares are almost entirely owned by Next Alt, do not trade, and carry 25 votes each. Each Class B share can be converted into one Class A share.

Optimum has no founder in the startup sense. Cablevision's founding family, the Dolans, sold out in 2016. The closest thing to a founder today is Patrick Drahi, who created the Altice group in 2002 and assembled the U.S. business through acquisitions.

His stake changed significantly in 2026. As of April 17, 2026, Next Alt held about 182.9 million Class B shares and 5.8 million Class A shares, giving it 94.0% of the voting power. On May 29, 2026, Next Alt exchanged all 5.8 million of those Class A shares and 74.2 million Class B shares for $200 million of preferred units in a new Optimum subsidiary, issued to its affiliate Next Partner, at an implied $2.50 per share. After that exchange, it kept 108.7 million Class B shares and, according to the company, about 90.5% of the votes before the tender offer described below.

Optimum reported 272.6 million total shares outstanding as of July 31, 2026, after the tender. On that basis, Revenue Memo estimates that Next Alt's 108.7 million Class B shares equal about 40% of the company's shares. Using the June 30 share counts less the 120 million shares bought in the tender (about 163.7 million Class A and 108.9 million Class B), Next Alt holds about 94% of the votes. Drahi also holds roughly 2.9 million exercisable options. These are estimates from filings rather than a company-published figure, and they move as shares are issued, converted, or retired.

Institutional stakes shifted sharply around the 2026 tender offer, in which 120 million Class A shares were bought back from public holders. The table uses each holder's latest SEC filing. Class A percentages are as reported by each filer.

Optimum's own subsidiary also holds a large block of stock. The shares exchanged by insiders and the 120 million shares bought in the tender are held by that subsidiary and are excluded from shares outstanding, so they do not vote.

Optimum never raised venture funding. Its capital came from leveraged acquisitions, a public listing, asset sales, and, in 2026, a new layer of preferred equity.

Next Alt S.à r.l. is Patrick Drahi's personal holding company and the only investor that matters for control. Its Class B shares, and a stockholder agreement that lets it nominate a board majority while it holds at least 50% of the voting power, give Drahi effective control over every shareholder vote.

Dark Mirage, LP, advised by Neil Subin's MILFAM, first reported a 5.4% stake in June 2026 and kept buying, paying under $1 a share in August. It reported owning about 19.5 million Class A shares on August 25, 2026, and filed as a 10% owner. Its intentions have not been publicly disclosed.

BlackRock appears twice in Optimum's story. It reported holding about 6.2% of the Class A stock as of mid-2025, while BlackRock's credit business was named among the lenders Optimum sued in its antitrust case.

BC Partners and CPP Investments were Altice's co-investors in the original U.S. deals and held Class A shares after the IPO. They sold down in several transactions from 2019, including a 20 million share sale in September 2019. Neither appears among the 5% holders in the 2026 proxy statement.

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners owns 49.99% of Lightpath, the fiber subsidiary, rather than shares of Optimum itself.

The most important recent change is structural. On May 29, 2026, Optimum placed several businesses, including CSC Holdings' interest in Lightpath and certain cable subsidiaries, under a holding company called CSC Investments II. That entity is an "unrestricted subsidiary," which means it sits outside the guarantee package backing most of CSC Holdings' debt.

The new entity sold $300 million of preferred units to outside investors, swapped another $212.4 million of preferred units for common stock held by Drahi and company insiders, and used the cash to buy back 120 million Class A shares at $2.50 each. The tender was heavily oversubscribed: holders tendered about 246.6 million shares, and only 48.6% of each tender was accepted. Optimum had said it might follow with a public exchange offer, but not if the tender was substantially filled, as it was.

Patrick Drahi is a director and the controlling shareholder. He founded the Altice group in 2002 and chaired Optimum's board from 2018 to 2022. He also controls Altice Group Lux (formerly Altice Europe) and other telecom assets outside the United States.

Dennis Mathew is chairman and CEO. He joined as CEO in October 2022 from Comcast, where he ran regional operations, including the Freedom Region, and has chaired the board since July 2023. His background makes a useful contrast with Comcast's dual-class ownership, where the founding Roberts family holds about a third of the votes with a small economic stake.

Marc Sirota has been chief financial officer since March 2023. Michael Olsen, general counsel and chief corporate responsibility officer, moves to a senior executive counsel role focused on capital transformation on October 1, 2026, ahead of retirement at the end of 2027.

The board has nine members, all re-elected at the June 10, 2026 annual meeting: Patrick Drahi, his son David Drahi, Dexter Goei, Dennis Mathew, Mark Mullen, Dennis Okhuijsen, Susan Schnabel, Charles Stewart, and Raymond Svider. Only three, Mullen, Schnabel, and Svider, are independent. Five are Next Alt designees: the two Drahis, Dexter Goei (CEO from 2016 to 2022 and still an adviser on capital structure), Dennis Okhuijsen (a former Altice group CFO), and Charles Stewart (a former co-president and CFO).

In July 2024, lenders holding nearly all of CSC Holdings' debt signed a cooperation agreement that commits them to negotiate with the company as a group. In November 2025, Optimum and CSC Holdings sued lenders including Apollo, Ares, and BlackRock in federal court in Manhattan, arguing that the pact is an illegal cartel that shuts the company out of the credit market. The defendants moved to dismiss in February 2026, and trade groups filed briefs supporting them in March 2026. No ruling on the motion to dismiss could be confirmed as of this writing.

On June 9, 2026, a shareholder, the Paul Berger Revocable Trust, sued Drahi, Next Alt, Optimum, and its directors and officers in the Delaware Court of Chancery. The suit alleges breaches of fiduciary duty in the May 2026 restructuring, the private exchange, and the tender offer. The plaintiff dropped a bid to block the tender after Optimum filed supplemental disclosures, and had until September 8, 2026 to file an amended complaint. The transactions were approved by a committee of independent managers at the new subsidiary. The current status of the case could not be confirmed.

CSC Holdings owed about $21.8 billion of debt as of March 31, 2026, and Optimum reported consolidated net debt of $25.3 billion at the end of June, or 8.0 times annualized adjusted EBITDA. About $4.1 billion matures in April 2027 and another $2.2 billion in July 2027. In its second-quarter 2026 report, the company said "substantial doubt exists" about its ability to continue as a going concern because its cash and projected cash flow are not enough to cover those maturities. It has also warned that a restructuring that separates CSC Holdings from Optimum for tax purposes could trigger a tax liability of more than $4 billion. Teams tracking exposures like these typically log them in a risk register template with owners and triggers for each item.

On August 13, 2026, the NYSE notified Optimum that its average closing price had been below $1.00 over 30 trading days. The company has until February 13, 2027 to regain compliance. Separately, on September 16, 2026, its audit committee concluded that financial statements for 2025 and the first half of 2026 should no longer be relied on, because the company failed to record certain deferred tax benefits. The restatement is expected to reduce previously reported net losses and will not change revenue, cash flow, or EBITDA, but management expects to report a material weakness in internal controls.

Optimum is a clear case of control without majority economic ownership. Drahi owns about 40% of the shares but decides every shareholder vote. That lets him move quickly, as he did in May 2026, without public shareholders' approval. It also means minority holders carry the economic risk of decisions they cannot block, which is exactly what the Delaware lawsuit challenges.

The structure also shapes the debt negotiations. CSC Holdings' creditors are owed far more than the equity is worth, so in a normal restructuring they would expect to take control. By moving Lightpath and other assets into an unrestricted subsidiary and placing preferred equity there, Drahi and the company changed the starting point of those talks. Creditors now face an owner who has put valuable assets outside their direct reach and who is suing them in federal court.

The comparison with other cable owners is stark. Charter's ownership structure spreads control across a far larger and more stable shareholder base, and how Verizon is owned looks nothing like a single-founder holding company. Optimum competes with both for home broadband, particularly in the New York area, while carrying far more leverage relative to its earnings.

For customers, ownership shows up in investment decisions. Optimum is still spending on fiber upgrades and has expanded its mobile partnership with T-Mobile, a carrier whose own story of Deutsche Telekom's majority control is another example of a single dominant owner. How Optimum's debt is resolved in 2027 will determine who controls the network, and how much it can spend on it, for years to come.

Optimum internet and cable are owned by Optimum Communications, Inc., the company formerly known as Altice USA. Patrick Drahi controls it through his holding company, Next Alt, which holds about 40% of the shares and about 94% of the voting power.

Yes. Altice USA changed its corporate name to Optimum Communications in November 2025, and its stock began trading under the ticker OPTU on November 19, 2025. The company said the change did not affect its ownership structure, leadership, or operations.

Dennis Mathew is chairman and CEO of Optimum Communications. He became CEO in October 2022 after a career at Comcast and added the chairman role in July 2023.

Yes. Optimum Communications trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OPTU. Only Class A shares trade. The high-vote Class B shares are held almost entirely by Drahi's Next Alt. In August 2026, the NYSE warned the company that its share price had fallen below the $1.00 listing standard.

The Optimum brand began at Cablevision, which Charles Dolan founded in 1973. Patrick Drahi's Altice bought Cablevision in 2016 and combined it with Suddenlink to create what is now Optimum Communications.

Sharply downward. Altice USA went public in 2017 at $30 per share. On September 24, 2026, its shares closed at about $1.04, which puts the market cap at about $285 million based on the 272.6 million shares outstanding at the end of July.