San Francisco Firm to Buy Area Cable TV Operations

Chronicle Publishing of San Francisco said Wednesday it has agreed to buy Storer Communications’ cable television operations in Agoura and Ventura County.

Chronicle, the parent of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, said it will purchase Miami-based Storer’s cable operations in Agoura, Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Ojai, Santa Paula, Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village, affecting 56,000 subscribers.

Under terms of the deal, the rest of Storer’s cable operations in the state will be sold to ML Media Partners, a Merrill Lynch limited partnership. Those systems service 93,000 subscribers in Anaheim, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach as well as Fairfield, Rohnert Park and St. Helena in Northern California.

Storer spokesman Andrew F. Houlgate declined to comment on any possible deal.

But Leo Hindery, Chronicle’s chief financial officer, said the deal is complete and is worth about $260 million. He said it will be announced within a week in a joint statement by the three firms.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a New York investment firm, has been negotiating the sale. Kohlberg led an investor group that acquired Storer last year. Storer has since been selling some of its assets to pay off debts incurred in the transaction.

Storer announced in August that it planned to sell the California operations. Houlgate said the company will remain in the cable television business, concentrating on existing operations on the East Coast. Storer is the nation’s fourth-largest cable operator, with 1.5 million subscribers in 14 states.

Chronicle already owns five cable systems in California.