Time Warner Cable and Comcast Reach Merger Agreement

Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable announced Feb. 13 that their Boards of Directors have approved a definitive agreement for Time Warner Cable to merge with Comcast.

The agreement is a friendly, stock-for-stock transaction, in which Comcast will acquire 100% of Time Warner Cable’s 284.9 million shares. The transaction will generate approximately $1.5 billion in operating efficiencies.

The merger agreement between Comcast and Time Warner Cable is subject to shareholder approval at both companies and regulatory review and other customary conditions. It is expected to close by the end of 2014.

The new cable company will be led by President and CEO Neil Smit.

Time Warner Cable owns cable systems located in key geographic areas, including New York City, Southern California, Texas, the Carolinas, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Time Warner Cable will combine its unique products and services with Comcast’s. Time Warner Cable also has been a leader in the deployment of community Wi-Fi, and will combine its more than 30,000 hotspots, primarily in Los Angeles and New York City, and its in-home management system, IntelligentHome, with Comcast’s offerings.

Through the merger, Comcast will acquire Time Warner Cable’s approximately 11 million managed subscribers. In order to reduce competitive concerns, Comcast is prepared to divest systems serving approximately 3 million managed subscribers. As such, Comcast will, through the acquisition and management of Time Warner Cable systems, net approximately 8 million managed subscribers in this transaction. This will bring Comcast’s managed subscriber total to approximately 30 million.

Following the transaction, Comcast’s share of managed subscribers will remain below 30% of the total number of mult-channel video progamming subscribers in the U.S. and will be essentially equivalent to Comcast Cable’s subscriber share after its completion of both the 2002 AT&T Broadband transaction and the 2006 Adelphia transaction.

Click here to read the full press release.

Stay tuned with Utility Fleet eNews on how this merger will affect fleet operations.