in the company for a sum which one source believes to be in the region of $3.5 million.

Mr. Wilson stopped serving as president and a director of Cablevision following the sale on Monday.

The buyers of his stake, whose identities are not known, have overthrown half of the company's six-man board and installed their own people, said sources who attended the company's annual general meeting on Tuesday.

The other two directors voted out of office on Tuesday were Mr. Doulat Tolaram and Mr. Bill Craig.

They have been replaced by investment company bosses Mr. Jeff Conyers and Mr.

Joe Taussig and accountant Mr. David Lines, the sources said.

Mr. Conyers has helped spearhead considerable shareholder disenchantment over the last few years including questions into the amount of foreign ownership.

Observers now expect a fresh challenge to the legality of several controversial aspects about the way Cablevision is operated.

Mr. Conyers has an action pending at Bermuda Supreme Court against the company and its directors about whether it is illegally controlled by non-Bermudians.

Also in dispute is an agreement sending 60 percent of Cablevision's annual profits to a group controlled by one of its directors, American Mr. Bill McDonald.

Mr. Conyers said yesterday: "We want to continue to make the company work and we're very positive about the company as a whole.

"Obviously, there are some outstanding issues but we're prepared to sit down and work them out.'' Meetings to resolve differences between the two factions of the board are expected to be arranged.

Directors who are perceived to be in the opposite camp are Mr. Bill McDonald, Mr. Stephen Kempe, of the Bank of Butterfield, and Mr. Alex Cooper, of law firm Conyers Dill & Pearman.

Mr. Wilson's stake in Cablevision was bought by the Colica Trust, which is operated by accounting firm Cooper & Lines. The identities of the beneficial owners of the trust are not being made public.

Mr. Wilson said: "The sale is a private matter between me and the people who bought the shares.'' His departure from Cablevision, which was formed in 1972 as Tropical Broadcasting, has left him "a little numb'', he said.

"It's not as if it's all come as a shock,'' he said. "It's all happened very ordinarily.

"I've spent about 20 years putting it all together, but now is the time for looking forward and doing something else.'' Cablevision almost collapsed in the 1970s/1980s under a mountain of debt and some political opposition in Bermuda seeking to prevent its success.

"The only reason it was stymied was because others wanted it for themselves,'' said Mr. Wilson.

"They had a lot of clout and managed to delay it time and again. Cable television was a wonderful po' litical football.'' In the late 1970s, a commission set up by Bermuda's government re-commended against allowing cable television in Bermuda.

Government then hired Canadian telecommunications expert Dr. John DeMacardo to look into the matter and he backed the decision.

Dr. DeMacardo was later jailed for a number of criminal offences in North America including misuse of office.

"If someone had told me in 1979 that it would take 14 years to get this thing off the ground, I would have gone on to something else,'' said Mr. Wilson.