"still a big discount to its rival WOW"This is incorrect.Even at...

"still a big discount to its rival WOW"

This is incorrect.
Even at the current market price, CML is trading on a par with WOW at a PE of approx 22.
The KKR bid of $14.5 is a considerable premium to WOW, and WOW is a vastly superior company, who have done the hard yards, whereas CML will require a substantial investment short-term to catch up.
Thats why WOW is a good investment. By keeping the company well managed, they command a good price in the market, making takeover bids prohibitively expensive. The obvious consequence of that is that when WOW doubles in price in the next 4 years, all the returns will accrue to their shareholders.
Whereas CML, all that extra wealth will go to KKR (provided that they can make the improvements which CML's management have failed to make).

As I always say children : BUY 'performance', SELL 'potential'