Charter Communications has acquired Time Warner Cable in a deal which values Time Warner at $78.7 billion. The news comes after Comcast last month terminated its $45.2 billion merger agreement with Time Warner because of opposition from US regulators (Comcast Abandons Time Warner Bid).
Charter also announced that it is to buy another cable operator, Bright House Networks, for $10.4 billion. The three combined firms will serve cable television and broadband to 23.9 million customers in 41 US states, which compares with Comcast’s customer base of 27 million households. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which had opposed Comcast’s bid for Time Warner quickly issued a statement saying it would review this latest merger “on its merits” and decide if it is the public interest.
