Reports: Charter Close to Comcast Subscriber Deal

Charter Communications is close to a deal where it would buy about 1.5 million subscriber from Comcast outright and acquire a minority interest in a publicly traded spin-off containing another 2.5 million customers for a total investment of about $20 billion, according to published reports.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Charter and Comcast were in advanced talks on a deal where Charter would buy between 1 million and 1.5 million subscribers outright from Comcast, and would take a minority interest in a publicly traded spin-off that would hold about 2.5 million customers.

Bloomberg News added Tuesday that Charter also would swap about 275,000 subscriber it has in the Los Angeles area. The report did not say what systems Comcast would give up.

The reports come on the heels of a Financial Times story earlier this week that said Charter could buy 3 million subscribers from Comcast for between $18 billion and $20 billion.

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