Charter-Time Warner Cable Deal Closes

As expected, Charter announced Wednesday that it has closed its deal to merge with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

TWC stockholders—other than Liberty—will get $100 in cash and shares of common stock of the new Charter, which will be called Charter Communications Inc., for each .5409 shares of legacy Charter stock.

Holders of TWC stock have the option of getting $115 in cash and Charter shares equivalent to .4562 of legacy Charter shares.

Liberty Broadband has purchased $4.3 billion of newly issued common stock of the new Charter at $195.70 per share.

"I want to thank the management teams and all of the employees at Charter, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks for their hard work over these past 12 months," said Tom Rutledge, chairman, president and CEO of the newly merged Charter Communications. 

Charter's board will comprise 13 directors, including, in addition to Rutledge as chairman, seven independent directors, two directors picked by Advance/Newhouse, and three by Liberty Broadband.

The FCC approved the deal two weeks ago, then cleared the last hurdle to closing when the California Public Utilities Commission signed off on the transfer of assets in the state May 12.

At that time, Charter signaled May 18 would be the day.

Charter began trading on the NASDAQ Thursday morning under the symbol CHTR.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.