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After Coming Up Short in Bid for Time Warner Cable, Charter Is in Talks to Buy the Sixth-Largest U.S. Cable Firm

Mar 13, 2015  •  Post A Comment

After being outbid in its attempt in 2014 to acquire Time Warner Cable, cable TV company Charter Communications is reportedly going after the sixth-largest U.S. cable company, Bright House Networks.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek cites sources with knowledge of the situation saying Charter is in talks to buy the company, owned by billionaire S.I. Newhouse Jr.

“The discussions have been ongoing for months and both sides have agreed on the outline of a potential all-stock deal, two people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information,” Bloomberg reports. “Bright House, with about 2.5 million cable subscribers in states including Florida, California and Michigan, could be valued at about $12 billion if it fetches the same per-subscriber value that Charter last year agreed to pay in a deal with Comcast Corp.”

Charter’s bid to acquire Time Warner Cable last year fell short, before Comcast agreed to buy TWC for $45.2 billion. More than a year later, the Comcast-TWC merger still awaits regulatory approval. Charter’s offer reportedly valued Time Warner at about $61 billion.

“Charter agreed last April to take control of 3.9 million cable-TV customers in a three-part deal with Comcast that’s meant to ease the approval process for the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal,” Bloomberg notes.

A spokesperson for Charter declined to comment for the Bloomberg report, and a spokesperson for Bright House had not responded to requests for comment.

Bloomberg adds: “The companies aren’t likely to announce any deal before regulators are able to rule on Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable said one of the people, and it’s possible that no formal agreement will be reached.”

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One Comment

  1. I believe Brighthouse runs the systems, but they are they not 50% owned by Time Warner? Are they buying just Brighthouse’s part or the whole system including TW’s stake?

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