Charter to buy Cox in $ 34.5 billion deal, merger to make a cable giant
Two of the largest cable companies in the country, Charter Communications and Cox Communications, said they would merge in a deal with a value of $ 34.5 billion at a time when traditional cable companies are confronted with an exodus of subscribers who have been more interested in the streaming of the cable -TV -Bundel for years.
Under the conditions of the deal, Charter will acquire and managed the commercial fiber from Cox Communications and Cloud companies, and Cox Enterprises will contribute to Charter Holdings Charter’s Charter Charter’s residential cable activities. Within one year after the closure, the combined company will change its name in Cox Communications. The spectrum of Charter is the brand for consumers focused in the communities that Cox serves. The combined company remains with head office in Stamford, Connecticut and will retain an important presence on Cox’s Atlanta -Campus after the closure, the companies said.
Charter currently expects that approximately $ 500 million in annual “cost synergies” will be achieved within three years of dense, “arising from typical purchasing and overhead savings.”
“We are honored that the Cox family has entrusted us with its impressive legacy and is enthusiastic about the opportunity to take advantage of the great operational history and community leadership of Cox,” Charter President and CEO Chris Winfrey said in a statement. “This combination will increase our capacity to offer innovation and high -quality, competitively priced products, supplied with excellent customer service, to millions of houses and companies. We will continue to deliver high -quality products that save American families money, and we will make jobs from the coast of Overzee to create new, well -paid care and retirement workers, career and retirement workers, career and retirement workers, career and retirement workers, career and retirement workers.” “
Winfrey becomes president and CEO of the new combined company, while Alex Taylor, chairman and CEO of Cox, will serve as chairman. The Newhouse family will continue as investors in the combined entity, but Liberty Broadband, a vehicle for old media investor John Malone, will stop being a direct shareholder in the company because it has been in Charter.
The companies have chosen to participate in an era in which their relationships with TV networks are more loaded. Just last week, three large TV sales points Disney’s ESPN, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery’s CNN plans to launch on self-containing streaming property that have their media conglomate partners in direct fashion, without a distributor. Fox, Warner and Disney have all stressed who can have traditional cable customers, will be able to pick some of the benefits of the new services without having to leave their current schemes, but most analysts see that concept as positioning in the short term aimed at processing the cable companies.
Charter has been an aggressive negotiator in recent years when it comes to signing new distribution deals with media companies. While streaming is seen as the way of the future, the cable distribution relationships continue to generate billion in income for Disney, Paramount Global and others.
In 2023, Charter’s Winfrey Disney pressed the fact that the media giant and his contemporaries degraded cable, which forced customers to pay for channels with less premium content, or for networks that they do not use regularly and then encourage them to pay in a second arrangement for a streaming alternative. As a result, Charter was able to drop various Disney cable networks and at the same time get the opportunity to distribute some Disney streaming services.
