Charter confirms Time Warner Cable takeover in deal worth $55.33 billion

Posted:
in General Discussion edited May 2015
Charter Communications on Tuesday confirmed plans to buy fellow cable operator Time Warner Cable for $55.33 billion, as well as smaller cable outfit Bright House Networks for $10.4 billion.




As suggested by reports on Monday, the TWC takeover is being backed by Liberty Broadcast, which owns over a quarter of Charter's stock, the Associated Press said. If both purchases are approved Charter will have almost 24 million customers, making it a giant in the U.S. cable and Internet industries.

Comcast, by comparison, has approximately 27.2 million customers. AT&T's pending purchase of DirecTV should give it a combined 26.4 million TV subscribers and 16.1 million Internet users.

In the TWC acquisition, Charter is paying $100 in cash and shares of a new parent company, equal to 0.5409 shares of Charter for each current TWC share. The deal values TWC shares at $195.71 apiece.

It remains to be seen if government regulators will approve the arrangement. Comcast backed out of buying TWC for $45.2 billion just last month, after regulators indicated they would likely block the transaction. The main worry was that a combined Comcast/TWC entity would have controlled much of the U.S. media landscape, including many TV networks.

Charter first tried to pick up TWC in 2013, ultimately resorting to a failed hostile takeover. This year the company went for a softer approach, and the Wall Street Journal said that Liberty Broadband owner John Malone recently called TWC CEO Rob Marcus to signal friendly intentions. Liberty should end up owning about 20 percent of the new Charter.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    Sounds like a bad deal for consumers. All these corporate buyouts of default monopolies by other default monopolies...
  • Reply 2 of 12
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,305member
    This doesn't sound good to me. So 3 cable operators turns into 1. I don't see how this is a good thing at all. Then again,the AT&T/DirectTV deal is not good either.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    Time Warner is the only game in town where I live, and their employees act like it.

    Why, oh why can't we have competition???!!!
  • Reply 4 of 12
    tokyojimutokyojimu Posts: 528member
    When was the last time a corporate merger was good for consumers?
  • Reply 5 of 12
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Time Warner is the only game in town where I live, and their employees act like it.

    Why, oh why can't we have competition???!!!

    You can't have competition because politicians + business interest donations = you know the rest.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    tokyojimu wrote: »
    When was the last time a corporate merger was good for consumers?

    Mergers happen because growth and increased shareholder returns are "legally" required and in this economy, a merger is a quick path to growth.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post





    You can't have competition because politicians + business interest donations = you know the rest.



    Yeah, I know. It's odd how we who live in a country that lives and breathes competition, yet when it comes to competition for high-speed Internet, we're SOL. 

  • Reply 8 of 12
    conrailconrail Posts: 489member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post





    Mergers happen because growth and increased shareholder returns are "legally" required and in this economy, a merger is a quick path to growth.

    You're going to have to cite that particular law.

  • Reply 9 of 12
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    conrail wrote: »
    You're going to have to cite that particular law.

    It's baked into a corporation's fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders and board members, thus the quotes.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    I got internet service with Charter last year on a "special offer" for $30, after I had cancelled when they hiked my rates. This year my bill has jumped to $45, with a note on the invoice stating "regular price $60"... so withIn two years they're expecting to charge me double, with no change in service.

    Charter is [U]by far the worst[/U] service company that I've ever dealt with as far as constantly changing and increasing fees; let alone what a P.I.T.A. it is to get a fluent English speaker on the phone in customer service who actually knows what they're talking about. And with increasing monopoly power, it's only going to get worse.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    kent909kent909 Posts: 731member
    I got internet service with Charter last year on a "special offer" for $30, after I had cancelled when they hiked my rates. This year my bill has jumped to $45, with a note on the invoice stating "regular price $60"... so withIn two years they're expecting to charge me double, with no change in service.

    Charter is by far the worst service company that I've ever dealt with as far as constantly changing and increasing fees; let alone what a P.I.T.A. it is to get a fluent English speaker on the phone in customer service who actually knows what they're talking about. And with increasing monopoly power, it's only going to get worse.

    I used to have Charter. I did not like them much in the beginning. But as time went by it got better. I had to move and now I have Comcast and I long for the time when I had Charter.
    Things could be worse.
  • Reply 12 of 12
    waterrocketswaterrockets Posts: 1,231member

    Ugh. I'm in a TWC market, and they're the best option right now. Hopefully I'll have Google Fiber available by the end of the year though, then I can at least get pissed off about a different company's customer service for a few years.

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