The Dolan family, which founded Cablevision Systems, the US listed digital cable and telecoms company, has withdrawn its bid to take the company private in what would have been one of the US's largest leveraged transactions.

The wealthy family had hired Merrill Lynch and Banc of America Securities for the $17.8bn (€14.8bn) bid, including debt, which would have resulted in the company being de-listed from the stock market and increased its debt from $6.8bn to about $12.5bn.