Deal Set for Pasadena Cable Firm

Choice Cable, a Southern California cable television system with 135,000 customers, has agreed to be acquired by Cencom Cable of St. Louis, one of Choice’s owners said. Terms were not disclosed.

Marc Nathanson, who owns 20% of Choice, said the deal would take several months to close because of the transfer of Choice’s 19 franchises.

“We are not anticipating any problems with the approvals,” Nathanson said.

Choice is based in Pasadena and serves the San Gabriel Valley and Riverside areas. Its other owners are Donrey Media of Las Vegas and Howard Publishing of Oceanside.

Cencom has about 400,000 customers, mostly in the St. Louis area, making it the 30th-largest cable system in the country, Nathanson said.

Nathanson, president of Falcon Cablesystems of Los Angeles, would not disclose the price of the deal. When it was revealed in May that Choice was on the block, analysts said the system could bring more than $300 million.

At the time ML Opportunity Partners, an investment vehicle set up by Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, was identified as the leading candidate to acquire Choice.

Nathanson said he and the other owners plan to reinvest proceeds from the deal into the cable business.

Choice was spun off from Falcon in 1982. Falcon currently is the 17th-largest cable company in the country, Nathanson said.