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Charter Wants to Acquire Time Warner Cable Before Year's End

New Charter chair and cable industry mainstay John Malone has been telling anyone who'll listen that the cable industry should consolidate, leaking rumored acquisition talks to the press on a weekly basis; the speculation in turn helping to drive up cable industry stock. Malone's biggest goal continues to be a Charter acquisition of Time Warner Cable, despite a lack of interest by Time Warner Cable in being acquired.

With Time Warner Cable's significant subscriber losses this quarter, the rumor appears to have yet again been rekindled by Malone. Most investors seem to be hoping new Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus will be more open to a deal than outgoing CEO Glenn Britt. Reuters reporting that Charter Communications would like to get a deal done to acquire Time Warner Cable before the end of this year:

quote:
Charter Communications is weighing a bid for Time Warner Cable Inc before year-end and is trying to devise a deal structure that would lure the No. 2 U.S. cable operator's shareholders, people familiar with the matter said.

John Malone's Liberty Media Corp, which owns about a quarter of Charter, approached Time Warner Cable earlier this year about merging Charter and Time Warner Cable. Talks between the parties restarted over the past few days, according to a separate source close to matter, but Time Warner Cable's management remains cool to the idea of a tie-up.
While a deal may or may not happen, plenty of people are making a pretty penny on the continued speculation. Both Time Warner Cable and Charter saw 3% stock jumps on Friday alone.
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mixdup
join:2003-06-28
Alpharetta, GA

mixdup

Member

Hmmmm....

This would certainly be interesting. There are several places where Charter is the cable company in areas neighboring to TWC areas. Most interesting is Birmingham, AL where Charter is the cable company in all of the suburbs surrounding Birmingham, and Bright House (a former TWC system) is the provider inside the city. Wonder if they'd wheel and deal to swap around or buy that or other BH systems neighboring Charter systems.

caseywor
join:2004-04-19
Mobile, AL
·Verizon Broadban..
·AT&T FTTP

caseywor

Member

Re: Hmmmm....

I am up in the Inverness/280 area about 25-30 miles from you. I would be thrilled, no matter what they do, if they could stop all the glitching and macro blocking on several of the channels, including TBS HD, Ch. 780, recently. Anytime I call in, they say they are aware of an outage in my area, but it continues. I have been fairly happy with their internet service at my home, although there have been quite a few outages with it as well since summer at my office near where I live.

ZsExperiment
Zse
Premium Member
join:2004-04-01
OBX 12 North

ZsExperiment

Premium Member

Re: Hmmmm....

Hell, I would be happy if Charter just provided On Demand in my area. Still not available in most of the Outer Banks, NC. We have frequent outages in the area, too. Don't count on having a phone available if the only phone service you have is Charter.

motorola870
join:2008-12-07
Arlington, TX

motorola870

Member

viability of the merged company would be a concern to me.

Charter already operates in the negative as it is and if the two companies combined I would expect bankruptcy in a few years. But I honestly don't think TWC is interested. It is more like John Malone wants to be a Maverick of the Cable industry again like he was in the 90s and is trying to pressure TWC into selling out so he can expand his empire. I don't think it would work out and all it would lead to is more subscriber defections and service degradation for TWC subscribers as there would be fewer options for TWC subscribers channel wise and internet options as Charter only offers 30Mbps down and 100Mbps plans while TWC offers 1Mbps, 3Mbps, 15Mbps, 30Mbps, 50Mbps, 75Mbps, 100Mbps plans depending on the area.

I honestly think there would be regulator refusal of the deal due to Charter's debt load as it is and after the At&t/T-Mobile disaster planned marriage any company should be careful to try to expand like At&t did.

mixdup
join:2003-06-28
Alpharetta, GA

mixdup

Member

Re: viability of the merged company would be a concern to me.

Regulators don't care about debt load, and Charter + TWC would still only be in the range of Comcast or a little smaller. Additionally, it wouldn't reduce the number of options in any markets. Theoretically you could have one single nationwide cable company and the competitive picture would be about the same (just about everywhere in the country has three, maybe for choices: Whatever the local cable company is, Dish, DirecTV, and maybe U-Verse or FiOS). Not the same dynamic as, say, Dish and DirecTV merging.

And, there's no reason to think that the much, much larger TWC wouldn't be the operational model they'd emulate. As a Charter customer and former TWC/Bright House customer, I wouldn't mind for some of the TWC culture and operational ability to filter into Charter.

motorola870
join:2008-12-07
Arlington, TX

1 edit

motorola870

Member

Re: viability of the merged company would be a concern to me.

sorry but Charter/TWC merged would not be viable. Charter has not posted a positive profit in many quarters but yet John Malone is pressuring them to merge. I honestly think it will be axed due to something will happen where someone will get messed over money wise to try to block it. previous reports on it say $60 billion in debt and bond ratings worse than charter's current bond rating if they were to merge with Charter in control. But I wouldn't mind TWC buying out Charter and kicking their management team to the curb as they have seemed to turn the company in the wrong direction due to getting rid of customer friendly CSRs that were social media based and have made service worse from what I have heard. I have heard a lot of bad things about charter in North Texas with their services going in and out.

I am sorry but if Charter buys out TWC there should be some caveats:
Tivo support must be required
must scrap plans for integrated security
pull Charter's waiver for integrated Security
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

TBBroadband

Member

Re: viability of the merged company would be a concern to me.

TWC has too much on their hands as it is. They're busy working on trying up grade all areas to be the "same" and get rid of their "regions" and "divisions". taking on someone the size of Charter who already is "one" company, it could take on more of an issue. Especially when TWC would decide to split services into 10 instead of handful.
TBBroadband

TBBroadband to motorola870

Member

to motorola870
Charter does offer other speeds. It's very select though. The thing with Charter and the other MSOs (except Cox, TWC and a couple others) they're region based with no real solid growth plans to keep expanding services as far as upgrades and do carry a massive amount of debt currently. As it stands with TWC, you can owe TWC money in LA but move to Texas and obtain services. That is a huge issue that is not fully corrected until "one" TWC is created further down the line, but that will still take time.

TWC would be smart to either merge in with someone or start purchasing themselves. Otherwise they'll be left to fend off other companies that are moving in- including any overbuilders.

morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000

morbo

Member

Charter on the road to another bankruptcy

Charter apparently didn't learn a lesson from the last bankruptcy. That is unfortunate since they emerged from that incident strong.
Bengie25
join:2010-04-22
Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Bengie25

Member

Re: Charter on the road to another bankruptcy

It is. I was a very unhappy Charter customer prior to bankruptcy, dropped them, picked them up again some time after.

My satisfaction with them after the bankruptcy was quite high, but they have been sliding over the years, and I recently dropped them again after 7 years of mostly great service.

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

djrobx

Premium Member

I hope the government blocks this

I realize that TWC and Charter don't compete directly, but neither did the Baby Bells. Business diversity still encourages competition, as the telcos and cable companies don't share the same borders.

Time Warner is big enough already. The consolidation of TWC/Comcast/Adelphia in LA was a complete nightmare. Just say no!

motorola870
join:2008-12-07
Arlington, TX

motorola870

Member

Re: I hope the government blocks this

I wouldn't be surprised if they did merge if a few markets would be required to spun off as Charter would have a monopoly in LA with Cox being the only other operator and Texas would have Charter for most of the state and the Dallas Fort Worth metro would only have 1 cable provider instead of 2. Just say No is Right!

Besides if a deal is done could TWC force a buyout of Charter instead they have the cash to do so

mixdup
join:2003-06-28
Alpharetta, GA

1 recommendation

mixdup to djrobx

Member

to djrobx
Charter + TWC is still smaller than Comcast or DirecTV. I don't see any anti-trust issues from the government coming up. Plus, neither TWC nor Charter own any broadcast stations and don't have major holdings in cable channels (though Malone does, separately from Charter).

motorola870
join:2008-12-07
Arlington, TX

motorola870

Member

Re: I hope the government blocks this

But TWC doesn't want to merge and Liberty media and TWC together being owned by Mr. Malone might get an second look by anti-trust because he would have a control over about 30% of the total TV homes not to mention Liberty would have a defacto duopoly with Mr. Malone owning cable systems and DirecTV which should be considered a conflict of interest.

mixdup
join:2003-06-28
Alpharetta, GA

1 recommendation

mixdup

Member

Re: I hope the government blocks this

Liberty and Malone no longer have control over DirecTV. They sold their controlling stake in 2010. He wouldn't have even been able to take his controlling stake in Charter if he were still controlling DirecTV
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

TBBroadband to djrobx

Member

to djrobx
That was all due to Adelphia operating differently, and being built of MOT products. LA wasn't the only area that had issues.
biochemistry
Premium Member
join:2003-05-09
92361

biochemistry

Premium Member

Ego

This sounds like nothing more than John Malone needing an ego boost. The merger only helps Malone's overinflated sense of self.

Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY

Packeteers

Premium Member

Charter has Usage Caps

I would not want to see TWC inherit Charter's usage caps;

» Charter Forum FAQ »Does Charter have usage caps?

especially in my neighborhood which suffers no congestion.
Chuck_IV
join:2003-11-18
Connecticut

Chuck_IV

Member

Re: Charter has Usage Caps

While they do on paper, they are not currently being enforced as far as I know.

mixdup
join:2003-06-28
Alpharetta, GA

mixdup

Member

Re: Charter has Usage Caps

I have the 30 meg plan and blow through 250GB on a regular basis. If you read their "network management guidelines" they only enforce the caps if your node is congested.
slckusr
Premium Member
join:2003-03-17
Greenville, SC

slckusr to Packeteers

Premium Member

to Packeteers
I havent seen any usage letters yet. and ive been using quite a bit of data as of late.

treich
join:2006-12-12

treich

Member

I tried to see if I can get any word on this from TWC rep

I tried to see if I can get any word on this from my TWC business class rep and this what he told me:

Hi Tim this is way above my pay grade I wouldn't have any idea or be able to confirm

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 4, 2013, at 11:17 AM, "Tim R" wrote:
Chris
You know anything about being bought out by charter? Because I am seeing this »Charter Wants to Acquire Time Warner Cable Before Year's End [31] comments is there anyway you get this confirmed?

Tim

________________________________________
This E-mail and any of its attachments may contain Time Warner Cable proprietary information, which is privileged, confidential, or subject to copyright belonging to Time Warner Cable. This E-mail is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient of this E-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or action taken in relation to the contents of and attachments to this E-mail is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this E-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and permanently delete the original and any copy of this E-mail and any printout.

mixdup
join:2003-06-28
Alpharetta, GA

mixdup

Member

Re: I tried to see if I can get any word on this from TWC rep

Of course not, it is silly to ask an employee of either company. These are discussions at the absolute highest level (CEO and the Boards of Directors) and they have not been finalized or even agreed to in principle yet.

anonome
@verizon.net

anonome

Anon

Poor widdle cable companies...

I guess billions and billions of dollars in revenue and huge profits are just never enough. The rich get richer, and the poor get plowed under.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: Poor widdle cable companies...

I wouldn't say Charter has huge profits.
elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

elray to anonome

Member

to anonome
What huge profits?
Expand your moderator at work

KoRnGtL15
Premium Member
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR

KoRnGtL15

Premium Member

How can Charter come close to pulling something like this off....

Coming out of a BK not to long ago. And some how magically have all this money to buy a company? WTF?

mixdup
join:2003-06-28
Alpharetta, GA

mixdup

Member

Re: How can Charter come close to pulling something like this off....

because malone has a lot of money on his own outside of charter. plus there are ways to merge companies without having the money to do it (issue stock, borrow it, etc)

mikedz4
join:2003-04-14
Weirton, WV

mikedz4

Member

time warner and comcast colloboration makes more sense

I think if Comcast and time warner collaborate and enter into joint programming agreements it would help prices of programming go down. I don't know how feasible it would be but if they both entered into contracts for abc/Disney programming and equipment they should be able to get better deals.