The Dolans have officially taken their $7.9 billion Cablevision buyout offer off the table. Newsday has the details: "In the latest twist in a year of dramatic turns for Cablevision Systems and the family that controls it, the Dolans said they had withdrawn a $7.9-billion offer to take the cable company private and to spin off its New York Knicks and Rangers, TV channels and Madison Square Garden." In their offer, the Dolans valued the company at $33.50 a share. On news of the withdrawn offer, however, Cablevision's stock price fell by $3.54, to $26.24.

Instead, the Dolans recommended to the board that shareholders receive a special one-time dividend of $3 billion, or roughly $10 a share. Since the Dolan family owns a 22% stake in the company, that translates into a $700 million payday for the dysfunctional Dolans.

While investors roundly criticized the decision by the Dolan family, some Wall Street analysts actually upgraded the company's stock on the news. For example, Banc of America Securities changed its rating on Cablevision from "neutral" to "buy" and upped its target price to $33, while Stifel Nicolaus changed its rating from "market perform" to "market outperform" with a new price target of $35. The conclusion, apparently, is that the Dolans were actually offering fair value ($33.50 a share) for Cablevision.