Charter Nears $55B Deal To Buy Time Warner Cable: Reports

Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable are close to a merger agreement that would see the smaller cabler pay $195 per share in cash and stock, Bloomberg reports. The deal which the Wall Street Journal valued at about $55 billion could be announced as soon as tomorrow.

Charter would pay $100 a share in case with the rest in Charter stock, according to sources cited by Bloomberg said. Bright House Networks would also be folded into the Charter-Time Warner combo. The $195 a share offer is a 14% premium to TWC’s closing price of $171.18 on Friday.

The proposed merger would push Charter, which is backed by John Malone’s Liberty Broadband, to the top tier of U.S. cable TV and broadband companies. The combined company would have 23 million total customers, second only to No. 1 Comcast’s 27 million. Charter had been expected to make a play for Time Warner Cable after since Comcast dropped its takeover bid earlier this year because of opposition by government regulators.

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