The St. Louis company that sold for $9.1 billion, and the man who built it

Fourteen years after his first exit from the cable business, Jerry Kent is on the verge of leaving again. Kent is chairman and chief executive of Town and Country-based Suddenlink Communications, the soon-to-be subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Altice SA, which has agreed to pay $9.1 billion for the nation’s seventh-largest cable company. It should be no surprise that most St. Louis (MO)-area residents aren’t familiar with the company, located near Maryville University. Of 6,000 employees, only 270 are in St. Louis. And while it has 1.5 million customers in 17 states, only 60,000 of them are in Missouri, in areas like St. Joseph and Branson. It has no presence in Illinois. And now it appears the firm has been caught up in a transformation sweeping an industry facing a variety of challenges, including competition from the Internet, satellite providers and rising costs. The move represents a toehold in the US market for Altice, a cable and cellphone company controlled by billionaire Patrick Drahi. His company also is said to be interested in making a play for Time Warner Cable, the recent target of a failed bid by industry leader Comcast.