http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/comcast-buy-time-warner-cable-all-stock-deal-n29011
Comcast to Buy Time Warner Cable in All Stock Deal
BY DAVID FABER
Comcast has reached an agreement to acquire Time Warner Cable in all-stock transaction worth roughly $159 a share, according to people close to the deal.
The new company, created by the $44 billion purchase, would be by far the largest cable provider in the nation with over 33 million subscribers, and is certain to face a tough review from the Federal Communications Commission.
The agreement comes more than eight months after Charter Communictions and Liberty Media made their first foray to try and negotiate a deal to acquire Time Warner Cable (a story broken by CNBC) and follows months of conversations between Time Warner Cable and Comcast about the prospect of a Comcast acquisition of the company.
Charter's offer of roughly $133 a share in cash and stock has been rejected by Time Warner Cable as it held out for a price of $160, which it has said it reflective of where an asset of its size and scope should trade in a deal.
While there a no caps on the ownership of cable subs, Comcast had been thought to be lukewarm to a deal to buy all of Time Warner Cable due to its concern about being subjected to an onerous consent decree from the FCC similar to the one it signed upon acquiring NBC Universal.
Comcast will indicate a willingness to divest 3 million subs from the combined company, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Comcast, which is widely considered under levered in the cable industry, will nonetheless use no cash in the acquisition, which is expected to be officially announced Thursday morning U.S. time.
Will this impact you? Is consolidation inevetiable and a good thing or is this anti-consumer and going to cause all of our bills to go up? Personally I'm not a fan, where I live I only have two cable options Century Link and Comcast and I hate both the companies but have no choie :(.
