Charter Communications is buying Time Warner Cable for $55.33 billion, creating one of the largest TV and internet providers in the U.S.
The deal comes a month after Comcast, the country’s largest cable provider and owner of NBCUniversal, walked away from a $45.2 billion bid for Time Warner Cable after intense pressure from regulators. Time Warner Cable had chosen the Comcast deal and rejected a $38 billion hostile offer from Charter in early 2014.
There has been a wave in consolidation in the cable industry as providers lose TV subscribers, costs for TV, sports and movies rise and pressure from online video services such as Netflix and Hulu increases.
John Malone’s Liberty Broadcast, which owns more than a quarter of Charter’s stock, is backing the acquisition, which gives the cable pioneer a jewel he has pursued for years and puts Charter in the same league as Comcast.
Time Warner Cable is the country’s No. 2 cable company and serves large markets in Los Angeles and New York.
Charter on Tuesday also said it would buy Bright House Networks, a smaller cable provider, for $10.4 billion.
Charter, combined with Time Warner Cable and Bright House, will have nearly 24 million customers, compared with Comcast’s 27.2 million. AT&T’s pending deal with DirecTV would give it 26.4 million TV customers and 16.1 million internet customers.
Liberty Broadband is expected to own about 20% of the new Charter.
The companies on Tuesday valued New York-based Time Warner Cable at a total of $78.7 billion, including debt.
