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Charter Trying to Shed Los Angeles Networks
On Heels of Failed Time Warner Territory Swap
Charter appears posed to offload a significant chunk of their presence in Los Angeles, hoping to shed LA networks covering about half a million people for around $2 billion. Insiders tell Multichannel News the deal is an effort to force Time Warner Cable's hand, the company balking at a deal that would have involved Charter trading Time Warner Cable some systems in Wisconsin for the Los Angeles presence. Time Warner Cable acquired a significant number of Los Angeles subscribers back in 2008 -- though the integration involved significant headaches for Time Warner Cable customers. Those integration issues may be why Time Warner Cable is gunshy on such a deal, given the company is still trying to repair its image hit in the city of angels.
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odog
Minister of internet doohickies
Premium Member
join:2001-08-05
Atlanta, GA

odog

Premium Member

$$$

All for the right price. I doubt TW is willing to take on more debt to get bigger. Charter is the one that needs the money, not TW

AMDUSER
Premium Member
join:2003-05-28
Earth,
ARRIS CM8200
ARRIS SB6183

AMDUSER

Premium Member

Re: $$$

Considering I used to live in the Charter areas in WI.. I have a rough idea of what would happen if Time Warner Cable swapped its WI operations. The cable tv service rates are higher [in addition to Charter charging extra for HD].. in general Charters services cost more than Time Warner Cables' services in the Appleton,Greenbay, and Milwaukee. If it gets swapped, I will likely be having Dish Network or Direct TV come out and install once the rates went up.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

enough is enough

When will spinning off parts of a company ridden with debt become ILLEGAL? Verizon's been plenty successful of doing this... Utilities seem to fall under a too important to fail category so they get to skirt around some moral compases. Up until now it's just been telcos.

cork1958
Cork
Premium Member
join:2000-02-26

cork1958

Premium Member

Re: enough is enough

said by tmc8080:

When will spinning off parts of a company ridden with debt become ILLEGAL? Verizon's been plenty successful of doing this... Utilities seem to fall under a too important to fail category so they get to skirt around some moral compases. Up until now it's just been telcos.

What could be an easier way of getting out of debt than selling part of your product/company?

Goscrew
@rcn.com

Goscrew to tmc8080

Anon

to tmc8080
said by tmc8080:

When will spinning off parts of a company ridden with debt become ILLEGAL? Verizon's been plenty successful of doing this... Utilities seem to fall under a too important to fail category so they get to skirt around some moral compases. Up until now it's just been telcos.

Why should it be illegal? So that the rest of the remaining company can fall apart and everyone lose their jobs?
unoriginal
Premium Member
join:2000-07-12
San Diego, CA

unoriginal to tmc8080

Premium Member

to tmc8080
Since when does cable tv fall under the definition of a utility?

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: enough is enough

said by unoriginal:

Since when does cable tv fall under the definition of a utility?

It doesn't. But there are plenty of people who think making something a utility will mean price regulation that will save them money. It never works out that way however. Making something a utility does 2 things: The companies involved learn how to manipulate the regulators and any so-called price savings disappear quickly. The regulated companies then spend more money on lobbying the regulators and much less on actually innovating and improving things.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

1 edit

tmc8080

Member

Re: enough is enough

Hows that DEREGULATED $5 a gallon of gas working out for you?

Also, sorry if I meant to suggest cablecos should be treated as a utility (however, if more than 50% of their revenue is from TELECOM services aka PHONE, BUSINESS CLASS INTERNET, then the shoe fits). Also no cableco fits that model, except maybe in Canada.

Let me put this another way.. lets say Joe Schmo is in debt and back taxes past their eyeballs. Why not create a corporation or business and offload that debt, then sell the company. Now it's someone else's problem. Technically, there are laws that strongly suggest keeping personal and business expensed debt separate, however there are amazing loopholes which go beyond the scope of this thread. Verizon's lawyers exploited loophole after loophole into a weave even Black women would say GOD DAMN! about.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: enough is enough

said by tmc8080:

Hows that DEREGULATED $5 a gallon of gas working out for you?

My last fill up yesterday was $3.60/gal. Maybe because NJ has some of the lowest gas taxes in the country.
elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

elray to tmc8080

Member

to tmc8080
said by tmc8080:

Hows that DEREGULATED $5 a gallon of gas working out for you?

Works fine for me.

What's the alternative? Regulating production and price?
That will only serve to return us to the days of gas lines, and how appropriate, Governor Brown's ODD and EVEN gas days, and some form of rationing, i.e. a 5-gallon limit per week or month.

Higher gas prices hurt in the short term, but they benefit us in the long run, as we might finally learn our lesson, and wean ourselves from our petrol habit.
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Skippy25

Member

So....

That is about $4000 per customer. Is that suppose to be a good deal? Are customers worth $4000 a piece? Assuming a margin of $60 per month, that is over 5.5 years to recoup that cost. Will investors really be willing to be that patient?

AMDUSER
Premium Member
join:2003-05-28
Earth,

AMDUSER

Premium Member

Re: So....

That price is too high per customer... $4,000 per customer.. Time Warner Cable, Comcast and others average about $2,500 per customer for debt.
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Skippy25

Member

Re: So....

I'm not questioning that as I would agree.

However, you have many of these type sales or potential sales going on and the shills are all over it.

However, ask them to invest $1500 per current customer to improve their infrastructure to bring better broadband and they are all up in arms about that cost.

Zen6
@rr.com

Zen6 to AMDUSER

Anon

to AMDUSER
And just before they do a sub count every line possible will be connected and listed as a subscriber.

Shpat
@sbcglobal.net

Shpat

Anon

I hope this goes through

I attend school in Milwaukee where twc is the ISP and visit home on the weekend where charter is the ISP. All I can say is that charters internet is way way faster for the same price as twc since they did dociss 3 upgrades compared to twc that doesn't do anything... I hope the swap happens I'm tired of paying 50 dollars for 8 mb service when I could get 16 or 25 with charter.

motorola870
join:2008-12-07
Arlington, TX

motorola870

Member

Re: I hope this goes through

TWC has announced that wisconsin is getting wideband 50 and extreme 30 soon it is on the website but do note that extreme 30 is $20 more than standard and wideband 50 is $99
baja7475
join:2009-06-16
Atascadero, CA

baja7475

Member

how much of an area?

I wonder if this includes ventura and/or san luis obispo county? Probably can't get an answer from the charter folks until it happens.

UNSuser
@optonline.net

UNSuser

Anon

Cablevision paid 1.3 for 300k

Cablevision paid 1.3 for 300k customers with bresnan. For TW it probably does come down to how many customers passed vs how many signed, but other companies are not going to want to buy this. As a business I would want to dominate a market....why share markets with other cable companies because if they do one thing badly you automatically get lumped in with them regardless of how superior and different you may be.....so to share this market with TWC, if they decide to something that might go wrong you will automatically be impacted....