TWC shareholders approve Charter takeover

Time Warner Cable shareholders have approved the company's $56.7 billion takeover by Charter Communications. The preliminary vote count at TWC's special shareholder meeting comes after Charter announced in May that it intends to acquire both TWC and Bright House Networks to form the second biggest U.S. cable company behind Comcast. Separately, Charter shareholders are also set to vote today on the $10.4 billion Bright House proposal, as well as the related sale of $5 billion in stock to Liberty Broadband.

The shareholder votes come just over a week after the Federal Communications Commission started its regulatory review of Charter's purchases. In a note to investors, New Street Research said that while Charter CEO Tom Rutledge has said the deals will close in 2015, a more plausible timeline calls for a February-March close.