News broke Wednesday that Comcast is buying Time Warner Cable for $45 billion in stock. The deal effectively combines the nation’s two biggest cable operators.
Although the formal announcement is due this morning, we’re told the boards of both companies have already approved the deal.
“With the deal,” The Wall Street Journal reports, “Comcast almost certainly ends an eight month takeover battle for TWC waged by fourth biggest cable operator Charter Communications Inc. and its biggest shareholder, Liberty Media Corp., whose chairman is cable pioneer John Malone.”
Based on what’s known of the deal at this time, Time Warner Cable shareholders will receive $158.82 a share in stock for their shares.
All told, that’s about $23 a share above where TWC has been trading.
Despite the fact that little has been reported in recent week about a potential deal between this two industry titans, “Time Warner Cable had long seen Comcast as a preferred merger partner,” the WSJ report notes.
