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Cablevision chairman may boot CEO son
Report: Battle over satellite TV unit could have Charles Dolan looking to remove James Dolan as CEO.
March 4, 2005: 7:34 AM EST

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Cablevision Systems chairman and primary shareholder Charles Dolan may try to remove his son as CEO of the company due to a battle over its satellite television unit, according to a published report.

The New York Post, citing two sources close to the elder Dolan, reported Friday that he is considering taking the step of removing son James Dolan as CEO.

A Dolan family trust controls all the Class B shares of the company's stock, which control 75 percent of the voting rights in the company. But while James Dolan is part of that trust, it is his father and mother, Helen, who hold the right to vote most of those shares, according to the company's most recent proxy statement.

Charles Dolan on Wednesday announced four new members to the company's board of directors, as well as announcing that he would ask the board to increase its size in order to add his son-in-law, Brian Sweeney, as a director. Sweeney is the company's senior vice president for e-media.

On Thursday, Cablevision (Research) announced in a regulatory filing that the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an informal inquiry into trading in the company's securities. Shares of Cablevision fell more than 5 percent on that announcement and an additional 1.4 percent in after-hours trading.

Charles and James Dolan have fought over the future of Voom, with the company deciding to sell its only satellite to EchoStar Communications (Research), while Dolan and another son, Tom, formed a separate company to buy the unit's other assets. But that deal did not close by the Feb. 28 deadline set for the sale.

On Tuesday, James Dolan sent a memo to Voom employees that the company's board has ordered Voom be closed. But Charles Dolan sent out a memo that said "members of the Dolan family remain committed" to the satellite business and that "financing for the purchase of Voom operations is in place."

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