Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. are negotiating to sell up to $20 billion worth of assets to Charter Communications Inc. to help win regulatory approval for their proposed $42.5 billion merger, the Financial Times reports. Discussions have included selling between 3 million and 5 million subscribers to Charter.
The merger, announced in February, would combine the nation’s top two cable TV companies and would create a dominant force in both creating and delivering entertainment to U.S. homes.
Charter had pursued Time Warner Cable for months, but Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus had consistently rejected what he called a lowball offer.
Comcast and TWC to sell $20bn in assets http://t.co/0TI9bX2fRx
— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) April 18, 2014
Comcast, which also owns NBCUniversal, had stayed in the background, waiting to buy any chunk of subscribers that a combined Charter-Time Warner Cable would sell off.
