By Steve Donohue, FierceCable, November 25, 2013
| Executives at Comcast and Charter Communications have had | preliminary talks aimed at acquiring Time Warner Cable, which | could help each operator expand cable system clusters in Los | Angeles, New York and other markets, Bloomberg reported | Saturday. Officials at Charter, Time Warner Cable and Comcast | declined to comment. | | While Charter and investor Liberty Media have been touting the | benefits of consolidation for several months, Comcast CFO | Michel Angelakis said in July that the nation's largest cable | MSO was more focused on expanding internationally through | deals involving its NBCUniversal subsidiary. But striking a | deal with TWC could help Comcast expand its cable system | clusters in Florida, New York and Texas. And Charter could | create efficiencies in marketing, advertising, sales and | operations in areas where it operates near TWC systems, | including Los Angeles and the Carolinas. | | Word of a possible joint bid from Comcast and Charter for Time | Warner Cable has drawn comparisons to a deal that Comcast and | TWC struck in 2006 to acquire nearly all of the cable systems | that were owned by Adelphia Communications. In addition to | splitting up Adelphia systems in New York, Massachusetts and | several other states, TWC and Comcast agreed to swap several | cable systems. Those transactions helped TWC gain an | additional 3.3 million subscribers, while Comcast picked up | 1.7 million subscribers.
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Neal McLain