Media Mergers on the Hotplate

In a media and entertainment mega deal,cable TV titan Charter Communications,guided and backed by billionaire investor and Liberty Media magnate John Malone,is buying Time Warner Cable for 78.7 billion dollars in cash and stock,while at the same time putting fellow provider Bright House Networks in its shopping cart for 10.4 billion.From our perspective,said Troy Gayeski of Skybridge Capital,this deal is a great vindication of the strategy.Most of these deals are still accretive,which is a good sign there will be more deals.The US had a long hiatus in deal activity,but by late 2013,we started to see the boom come back.Europe is still grappling with slow growth,but now management teams are seeing deals are being rewarded.You're going to see inter-European consolidation.Italy has relaxed bank consolidation rules.The trend will be for higher deal flow,whether inter-European or with overseas partners.*
Also in the media and entertainment sector,Europe's Altice SA,based in Luxembourg,having just acquired American cable operator Suddenlink,is believed to be shopping for still more cable assets,a potential candidate being Bethpage,New York's Cablevision Systems Corporation.Charter rival Comcast has itself recently tried yet failed to acquire Time Warner Cable,being rebuffed by antitrust regulators.Some fear the lessened number of competitors will mean higher prices for customers.*
The expanded version of Charter would reportedly be called "New Charter." It would have a combined 24 million customers,serving about 18 million of those broadband Internet customers on 25 Mbps or less,and 16 million video subscribers,or about 17% of all video subscribers.New Charter would own about 86% of Bright House Networks;Advance/Newhouse will own the rest.Charter Communications' CEO Tom Rutledge would stay in that role for the new company.
All three of the prospectively merged companies offer Digital TV,High Speed Internet and Home Phone services.Time Warner Cable additionally brings assets in the form of cable advertising,regional sports networks,plus local news channels by way of Time Warner Cable News.TWC is the fifth largest landline telephone provider as well.It serves the big markets of Los Angeles,San Diego,New York City,Dallas,Charlotte,Cleveland and Cincinatti,among others.Indeed,TWC is larger than its acquirer Charter Communications.
New Charter would be the second largest cable TV company,after Comcast,and the third largest subscription TV provider,after AT&T/Direct TV and Comcast,pending regulatory approval of the AT&T/Direct TV merger.*
Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC),Bright House Networks Inc (BHN),Charter Communications Inc (CHTR),SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY),Liberty Media Corp (LMCA),Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC)