Charter Communications Plans Acquisition of Time Warner Cable

[CheeseMan42]

In the wake of a failed merger with Comcast, Time Warner Cable has found a new suitor in Charter Communications. Charter will pay $56.7 billion for Time Warner, and also plans to acquire Bright House Networks for $10.4 billion. After the merger, Charter will be the second largest cable company by subscribers, moving past AT&T and trailing only Comcast. Charter hopes that the merger won't face the same criticism from the FCC as the proposed Comcast and Time Warner merger as it won't create as great of a competitive advantage. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler addressed the proposed acquisition and described the FCC process stating, "The FCC reviews every merger on its merits and determines whether it would be in the public interest. In applying the public interest test, an absence of harm is not sufficient. The Commission will look to see how American consumers would benefit if the deal were to be approved." Charter feels that the merger will add value to customers of all involved companies stating, "Charter’s slowest speed tier (60Mbps downstream) is considerably faster and less expensive than TWC’s comparable tiers, with no data caps or usage based pricing.Charter will bring these products and pricing to TWC and BHN [bright House Networks] customers, while embracing TWC’s and BHN’s rollouts of a 300Mbps tier."

Source: Ars Technica

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