Altice USA’s COO and telecom chief is out

Altice USA abruptly shuffled its top-tier leadership, announcing COO and president of telecommunications Hakim Boubazine has resigned, effective immediately.

The operator provided little detail about the move, other than stating that Boubazine will continue to serve as a senior advisor to CEO Dexter Goei through the end of 2021. Goei will assume direct oversight for the Telecommunications business. Altice USA's remaining telecommunications management team – consisting of Matt Marino, EVP of Consumer Services; Matt Grover, EVP of Business Services; Pragash Pillai, EVP of Operations; and CTO Philippe LeMay – will report to him, a company representative told Fierce.

Boubazine has been with the company since 2015 and before joining Altice USA served as the CEO of Altice Dominicana, overseeing TV, broadband and mobile operations covering four million customers in the Dominican Republic. Prior to that, he was CEO of a European telecommunications company which built and ran cable and fiber networks in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

In a brief statement, Boubazine said “working at Altice USA has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my career and I could not be prouder of what we accomplished together.” 

The COO’s departure comes after Altice USA posted flat broadband subscriber growth in Q2 2021 at a time when rivals including Comcast and Charter raked in hundreds of thousands of net additions. Its wireless MVNO division also delivered a poor performance in the quarter, adding just 5,000 mobile lines compared to 34,000 in Q2 2020.

RELATED: Altice USA broadband sub growth grinds to a halt in Q2

Recon Analytics’ Roger Entner told Fierce “The company is certainly a laggard in the market. So that usually leads to people changing jobs.” He added of Goei’s decision to assume direct control of the Telecommunications division “he wants to turn this around.”

A company filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission noted Boubazine will continue to receive his base salary during his short stint as a senior advisor. After December 31, 2021, he will be entitled to payment of one year of his most recent base salary and payment of his 2021 annual bonus in March 2022.

Boubazine will be subject to a confidentiality clause, a year-long post-separation non-compete agreement and a 12-month agreement not to solicit employees, customers or vendors, the filing said.

 

This story has been updated with additional information.