Charter Communications will be acquiring Time Warner Cable in a massive deal valued at $78.7 billion. Combining companies will make Charter a formidable cable and broadband rival to service giant Comcast, which a month ago withdrew a $45 billion offer for Time Warner Cable. The Charter agreement works out to about $195 per share for TWC’s shareholders. Charter CEO Tom Rutledge has said he is confident the acquisition will be approved by regulators and close by the end of the year.
A Charter-TWC merger would give the purchasing company a base of 23.9 million subscribers in 41 states — including prime markets like New York City and Los Angeles, where TWC dominates. Charter projects that when the deal closes it will have 17.3 million video subscribers and 19.4 million broadband subscribers. Comcast has 27.2 million subscribers, with 23m of these being traditional video and 22m being broadband subs.
