Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) thwarted a hostile bid by agreeing to sell itself to Comcast Corp. for $67 billion in stock and assumed debt on Feb. 13. A month earlier, Charter Communications Inc. CEO Thomas Rutledge had gone public with a letter to TWC counterpart Robert Marcus in which Charter said it would was willing to pay $132.50 a share for TWC, including $83 in cash. The bid valued TWC’s equity at roughly $37 billion. The company also has $25 billion in debt.
Even though TWC stock had traded in the $90s during the first half of last year, the company’s board rejected Charter’s offer as a lowball bid and said it wanted $160 a share. Comcast struck a deal at $158.82 in stock. The acquisition would be Comcast’s third blockbuster; the company paid $72 billion for AT&T Inc.’s broadband division in 2002 and acquired NBC Universal from General Electric Co. for a total of $31 billion in two transactions. Time Warner Cable is the product of a divestiture; Time Warner Inc. spun off its cable division to shareholders in 2009.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
