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Charter Communications Agrees to Buy Time Warner Cable for $55B

posted by janrinok on Tuesday May 26 2015, @11:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the for-better-or-for-worse dept.

takyon writes that, according to Bloomberg:

Charter Communications Inc. plans to buy Time Warner Cable Inc., clinching a deal made necessary by slowing growth in the U.S. cable industry -- and more expensive by last-minute competition from French billionaire Patrick Drahi.

Charter will pay $195.71 a share -- 14 percent above Time Warner Cable's May 22 close -- with options of $100 and $115 in cash and the remainder in its own stock, according to a statement Tuesday. Bright House Networks, a smaller cable company that Charter has previously agreed to buy, will also be merged into the combined entity.

It took Charter and its main shareholder John Malone more than a year to reach a deal with No. 2 Time Warner Cable after their January 2014 bid of $132.50-a-share was rejected as a "low-ball offer" and Comcast Corp. jumped in with a competing offer. Although Charter got another shot when regulatory scrutiny caused the Comcast deal to fall apart in April, talks were disrupted by Drahi's Altice SA, which also approached Time Warner Cable in the past weeks.

"The idea that Time Warner Cable and Charter are merging isn't a surprise, but the price raises some eyebrows," Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson in New York, said May 24 after Bloomberg News reported a deal was near. "Altice undoubtedly contributed to Charter having to pay such a steep price to close the deal."

[Editor's Comment: Original Submission - before the purchase was confirmed]

 
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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @04:20AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @04:20AM (#188454)

    Ample competition? What? There's certainly not competition in all the areas where they're the only game in town, and in the areas where they do overlap with other competitors, now there will be less competition.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @09:57PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @09:57PM (#188798)

    They don't compete in the first place, not even the "smaller" ones like BrightHouse. In Indianapolis, for example, you can either get Comcast or BrightHouse, but the choice depends on where you live, not which one offers the better deal or service; you can't actually choose one or the other except by moving.