Charter Closes Time Warner Cable, Bright House Deals to Become Pay TV Powerhouse

Charter Communications closed its $55 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and its $10.4 billion takeover of Bright House in a mega-transaction that rearranges the US pay-TV landscape.

The newly merged company instantly becomes the second-biggest cable provider, after Comcast, and observers predict it could chip away at the bargaining power of content creators. The merged company will command about 17 percent of the nation's pay TV subscribers, or 17 million, and 22 percent of the broadband subscribers, or 19 million, with particularly strong positions in New York and Los Angeles.

Charter, in which John Malone’s Liberty Broadband owns a big stake, is run by president CEO Tom Rutledge, who is now also adding the chairman title. The deal makes Malone a big cable industry player worldwide, as his Liberty Global already owns cable assets across Europe and in parts of Latin America. Charter's new board will be led by Rutledge as chairman, with Eric Zinterhofer, who has been serving as chair since 2009, will continue to be a board member. Advance/Newhouse has designated Steve Miron and Michael Newhouse to serve on Charter's board, while Liberty Broadband will continue to be represented on the board by Malone, CEO Greg Maffei and Liberty Global chief technology officer Balan Nair. Continuing as members of the board are Lance Conn, Craig Jacobson, Jay Markley and David Merritt, while the company added Mauricio Ramos, CEO of Millicom. The remaining open position on the board is expected to be filled soon.