Lazlow
join:2006-08-07
Saint Louis, MO
| reply to jwalk
Re: This could get interest
I will be really surprised if TWC buys a significant portion of Charter(assuming it is sold off). TWC is still paying off all the debt it incurred from its split from TW. Since it did not pay a dividend this year, I suspect its stockholders would balk at them getting further into debt(pushing dividends even further out). Just look at the huge drop in TWC's stock price earlier this year.
I would expect that most of Charter would go to the smaller players. Just like everything they have sold off in the last year or so. Maybe some of the bigger players would consider picking up Charter's more densely populated areas (St. Louis). There is also always the possibility that some venture capital group will take them over in entirety. Depending on how bad the creditors want out, it could be a pretty good deal.
Personally I hope Charter hangs on. They have been improving their systems (admittedly slowly, D3) and they seem to have backed off the cap issue(at least for now) after the huge backlash. If they can essentially eliminate analog cable(the direction they have been headed for the last year), it will free up enough bandwidth to give them a much wider choice of options. |
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hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH
 ·Time Warner Cable
·buckeye cable
| TWC would pick them up on the auction block for pennies on the dollar the same as they did with Adelphia. But yes it would make sense for TWC to take over networks that belong to charter when they are close to the TWC network. Like the ones in Ohio. They're bordered by TWC and would make for an easy take over and move everything over to the TWC data centers. Nothing big there.
Venture Capital groups always have high prices- look at WOW they're prices are way higher than what TWC charges and the Internet side is slower for the same price of money.
MediaCom is the most likely company to take over STL though. |
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Lazlow
join:2006-08-07
Saint Louis, MO
| hottboiinnc
I think TWC would have to talk a really good game to get their stockholders to go along with them spending any more money. They are already looking at a considerable reinvestment in their systems (upgrading to D3) which they have already shown reluctance to do, reason for low caps. Their stockholders already got mad when they found out that there were not going to be any dividends this year(look at the massive drop in TWC stock earlier this year). I just do not see the stockholders allowing TWC to incur more debt than is absolutely necessary, no matter how good the deal could be. The other thing to consider is that credit is MUCH more expensive and harder to get now, than it was when they got Adelphia. In addition to that they were part of TW at that time and had a lot more assets to back up the purchase.
I did not say I wanted a venture capital group to buy, just that they could. Especially if they can get it for "pennies on the dollar". |
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hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH | You should go look at the reason for the drop. That wasn't their problem with the payouts. |
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