Comcast picks up Time Warner cable for $45bn

Two of the biggest cable networks in the US on Thursday agreed to a monster $45.2bn deal that will see Comcast acquire 100 per cent of Time Warner Cable. The transaction will generate approximately $1.5bn in operating efficiencies but will need to be cleared by regulatory and competition authorities.

Comcast will acquire Time Warner’s 11 million managed subscribers but in order to reduce competitive concerns, Comcast said it is prepared to divest systems serving approximately three million managed subscribers. As such, Comcast will net approximately eight million managed subscribers, bring Comcast’s managed subscriber total to approximately 30 million.

Following the transaction, Comcast’s share of managed subscribers will remain below 30 per cent of the total number of MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor) subscribers in the US, the company said.

As part of the deal, Time Warner Cable shareholders will take approximately 23 per cent of Comcast’s common stock, with a value to Time Warner Cable shareholders of approximately $158.82 per share based on the last closing price of Comcast shares.

The merged cable company, which will be led by president and CEO Neil Smit, will have access to the cloud-based X1 Entertainment Operating System, plus 50,000 video on demand choices on television, 300,000 plus streaming choices on XfinityTV.com, Xfinity TV mobile apps that offer 35 live streaming channels plus the ability to download to watch offline later, and the newly launched X1 cloud DVR. American businesses will also have access to high-performance point-to-point and multi-point Ethernet services and cloud-based managed services.

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