News
Merged entity serves 25 million customers in 41 U.S. states.
Charter Communications on Wednesday confirmed that its acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks have closed as expected, and indicated that those newly-acquired businesses will soon lose their legacy identities.
The cableco detailed the various cash and stock transactions that made up the three-way deal, but did not provide an updated overall valuation. When it announced the TWC takeover in May last year it valued that transaction at US$56.7 billion, plus the $10.4 billion it agreed to pay for Bright House.
Charter has not yet shared detailed plans for the integration of the new businesses, but there are indications that both will be in for a rebrand.
"Current Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable customers won’t see many changes right away, though in the coming months they will begin to hear more from us about the Spectrum brand, and the product improvements and consumer friendly policies that come with it," said Charter CEO Tom Rutledge, referring to the brand name the company uses for its various services. The firm’s video service is branded as Spectrum TV, for example, while voice, broadband and business services are marketed as Spectrum Voice, Spectrum Internet and Spectrum Business respectively.
Furthermore, Bloomberg quoted a spokesperson from Charter as saying that the TWC and Bright House names will go. Charter has yet to respond to requests for confirmation from Total Telecom.
The new, enlarged Charter will serve more than 25 million customers across 41 U.S. states, the firm said.
It has pledged to invest in its broadband network in order to deliver faster speeds, better video products and more competition in the consumer and business markets.
