What we know so far about the Charter merger with Time Warner Cable
As news continues to break around the Charter proposal to acquire Time Warner Cable, we round up what has been revealed so far.
Charter chief executive Tom Rutledge will become chairman and chief executive of the newly formed entity following the $55bn acquisition.
Charter has pledged to invest in new broadband products such as a faster connection and wider available public wifi. It has also promised to cease previous pricing tactics that has seen it fall fowl of regulators in the past.
Bright House Networks, a smaller cable operator which has around 24 million customers, will also be included within the deal.
Charter currently has about 4.1 million TV subscribers and 4.9 million broadband subscribers.
Following the merger, Charter will grow to host 17 million residential TV subscribers and 18.8 million broadband users.
Data caps for consumer downloads will not be introduced by Charter it has promised, nor will a usage-based pricing model.
The deal will see Time Warner offered $195 a share in cash and stock with shareholders allowed to choose how much cash they receive – between $100 - $115 per share.
Following the merger, the company will still be dwarfed by Comcast (which walked away from a bid to merge with Time Warner last month with an offer of $42bn) and serves around one third of US broadband users.
Speculation is that the new company will retire the name Time Warner Cable to become fully integrated into Charter.
Cable TV bundle subscriptions being introduced has also been speculated, while Rutledge has confirmed that the company plans to “expand its wireless footprint”.
The deal has yet to win Government approval and could still fail, however as the deal will form a smaller entity than that of the proposed Comcast deal, there is more positivity that it will pass by the end of 2015.
More details on Charter can be found in yesterday's Brand of the Day.