Altice’s bean counters have completed the first wave of cost cuts as part of the company’s notorious practice of “cutting to the bone,” laying off about 100 Cablevision employees managing IT, human resources, accounting and other back office operations at the cable company’s Bethpage, N.Y. headquarters.

Newsday reports Altice’s ability to cut Cablevision employees is constrained by an agreement with the New York Public Service Commission not to lay off any customer-facing employees or technicians for the next few years, as a condition of approving Altice’s buyout of Cablevision, which was completed in June. But once that condition expires, Altice management has signaled it will seek to further consolidate their holdings in the United States.

An Altice spokesperson confirmed the layoffs, but claimed Altice also hired 49 new workers “to its U.S. operations” in the last two weeks, which also includes Suddenlink. Altice’s career website shows the company is still hiring, but likely at a substantially lower compensation rate than workers used to receive before the acquisition.

Altice also showed it had little interest in the newspaper business and sold 75% of its recently acquired interest in the Long Island-based Newsday newspaper back to the Dolan family.