Commisso is founder, chairman and chief executive of Mediacom Communications, the fifth-largest cable television provider in the US. The company operates mainly across midwestern and southern states, and had revenue of $2.2 billion in 2022. He also owns ACF Fiorentina and the New York Cosmos soccer teams.
Commisso's fortune is derived from Mediacom Communications, the fifth-largest cable television provider in the U.S., according to the company's website in January 2024. A 2015 company filing states that the billionaire is its sole shareholder.
The company is valued using its 2022 financial results and the enterprise value-to-Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) multiple of three publicly traded peer companies: Comcast, DISH Network and Charter Communications.
Commisso isn't credited with any other assets. Mediacom is his primary source of his net worth, according to Mediacom spokesman Tom Larsen in 2017. His majority ownership of the New York Cosmos soccer team is unlikely to have any value because the Brooklyn-based team operates at a loss and the future of the league it plays in is uncertain, according to a discussion with Sarbjit Sab Singh, who chairs Farmingdale State College's Sport Management department.
Commisso bought Italian soccer club Fiorentina for a reported $175 million in June 2019. It's valued using reported financial results and the average enterprise value-to-sales multiple of three publicly traded peers: AFC Ajax NV, Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co KGaA and AS Roma SpA.
Commisso declined to comment on his net worth, according to Larsen.
Commisso was born in Calabria, Italy on Nov. 25, 1949, according to researcher Relationship Science. He moved to the U.S. at age 12 and grew up in the Bronx. He secured a soccer scholarship to Columbia University where he studied engineering and graduated from its business school in 1975, according to Mediacom's website.
After working in banking for a decade, he joined Cablevision Industries in 1986 where he was chief financial officer until 1995, when the company was sold. He parlayed his savings into cable company Mediacom that focused on markets in Midwestern and Southern states. The company listed on the Nasdaq in 2000 and Commisso took it private eleven years later at an enterprise value of $3.9 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Mediacom is now the fifth-largest cable television provider in the U.S., according to the company's website. The billionaire, who lives in New Jersey, is married.