Patrick Drahi, the European telecommunications tycoon venturing into the U.S., said his company Altice SA just wasn’t ready to take over Time Warner Cable.

“We didn’t see things to the next level after the press talked about our exchanges with Time Warner Cable because we weren’t ready,” Drahi told a hearing at France’s National Assembly Wednesday. “Yes we make quick choices and we’re ambitious, but I won’t do bulimic growth and risk the future of my company, which is also the future of my family.”

After John Malone’s Charter Communications Inc. agreed to buy the second-largest U.S. cable company for about $55 billion, Drahi plans to instead build his U.S. footprint by seeking to acquire smaller cable operators, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Altice, the French-Israeli tycoon’s holding company, agreed to acquire control of Suddenlink Communications on May 20 in a surprise deal worth $9.1 billion.