Dow Jones Set to Sell Stake in Cable TV Unit

Dow Jones & Co. Inc. said Wednesday it has agreed to sell its 17% interest in Continental Cablevision Inc. to the privately held cable television operator’s chairman for $299.8 million.

Continental Cablevision is based in Boston and is the nation’s third-largest cable operator with about 2.3 million subscribers in 15 states.

Dow Jones said it had agreed to sell its stake in the company for $270 a share to Chairman Amos Hostetter, who is also chief executive.

It said that under terms of the 1981 agreement in which it bought the stake, Dow Jones must offer the company the right to repurchase its shares on the same terms as agreed upon with Hostetter. Robert Sachs, senior vice president for Continental Cablevision, said its board has not yet considered the matter.

Sold Some Shares

Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s magazine and provides electronic business information services, said it had purchased a 24.5% stake in Continental Cablevision in 1981 for $25 a share.

It subsequently sold part of that interest to the company in 1986 for $100 million, according to Dow Jones spokesman James Ambrosio.

Dow Jones said its decision to sell the rest of its interest “reflected the attractive gain” in price of its stake compared with what it paid in 1981.

The company said it expects the deal to be closed in January, 1989, and said it plans to use the anticipated $193 million in after-tax proceeds to reduce its debt and for other unspecified corporate purposes.

According to Paul Kagan Associates Inc., a media research company based in Carmel, Calif., Continental Cablevision ranked third among the nation’s multiple-system cable operators with nearly 2.3 million subscribers at the end of August.

The two largest operators are Telecommunications Inc., based in Denver, with 4.3 million subscribers, and American Television and Communications Corp., controlled by New York-based Time Inc., with 3.9 million subscribers, according to the Kagan ranking.

Sachs said Continental Cablevision, founded in 1963, has cable systems in 450 communities across the country.