(Bloomberg) -- Altice USA, the fourth-largest U.S. cable operator, has offered to buy Cogeco Inc. for $7.8 billion and has agreed to sell Cogeco’s Canadian assets to telecom company Rogers Communications Inc.

Altice USA said it will pay $3.6 billion for the U.S. assets, which consist of Atlantic Broadband, the ninth-largest U.S. cable operator. The deal would give Altice 1.1 million new customers in 11 states.

A Cogeco spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Louis Audet, Cogeco’s executive chairman, would need to support the deal for it to be completed because he and his family control the voting shares, according to a statement. Altice’s offer includes $612 million to the Audet family for their ownership interest.

This offer represents a return to dealmaking for Altice, controlled by billionaire Patrick Drahi, who swooped into the market with the acquisitions of Cablevision and Suddenlink with a plan to create another cable giant in the U.S. but had gone quiet after Drahi’s European business struggled.

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