Ever have that ex that just wouldn't leave you alone? So does Time Warner Cable. Less than 24 hours after news broke that Comcast was backing out of its merger deal with Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications stepped in to start wooing the company.
Charter Communications, the third-largest cable TV provider in the U.S., is already having low-level talks with TWC advisors, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.
The only trouble: Time Warner Cable tried once before to escape Charter, and in fact signed the deal with Comcast specifically to avoid it.
[seealso slug=http://sale-online.click/2015/04/23/comcast-time-warner-broken/%5D%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EScoop - Charter's advisers have already reached out to TWC advisers. Having preliminary deal talks.— Alex Sherman (@sherman4949) April 24, 2015
Charter laying the groundwork for a potential bid for TWC, an approach to TWC could come soon -- story coming to http://t.co/0UXD3aY5v9— Shalini Ramachandran (@ShaliniWSJ) April 24, 2015
Charter has been pursuing TWC since well before the Comcast deal, having attempted to acquire the company in late 2013. Comcast's deal was preferred by TWC executives.
Now, with no savior at hand, Time Warner Cable may have little choice but to entertain Charter's offers. The deal it struck with Comcast fell apart in the last couple weeks as government regulators began to bear down.
Charter had actually made a recent major cable acquisition, agreeing to buy a majority stake in Bright House Networks for $10.4 billion. The deal was contingent on the Comcast/TWC merger going through.
John Malone, the cable TV mogul who controls Charter, has long been an advocate of boosting the cable and Internet service business through mergers, particularly due to the emergence of Internet-based TV consumption.
"As more content goes over the top, the ability to provide flexible, high-speed connectivity will become the dominant trait," Malone told shareholder back in 2013.