By Shalini Ramachandran
Liberty Media Corp. Chairman John Malone said Wednesday the
cable operator he backs, Charter Communications Inc., would try to
acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. outright if Comcast Corp.'s pending
deal with TWC falls through.
Earlier this year, Charter agreed to a complex deal with Comcast
that would allow it to purchase subscribers from Comcast after the
TWC deal closes. That transaction would effectively make Charter
the second largest cable operator, servicing about eight million TV
and Internet customers.
Mr. Malone, speaking at Liberty Media's investor day, said he
would pursue an outright purchase of Time Warner Cable if the
Comcast deal doesn't get approval from regulators. That deal is
getting significant scrutiny in Washington. But Mr. Malone said,
"We're happy with the deal that's been negotiated," adding that "in
many ways from our point of view it's a better deal."
Liberty Media bought a big stake in Charter last year and
recently spun off that interest into Liberty Broadband, a new
publicly traded company. Liberty and Charter had pursued an
acquisition of Time Warner Cable for months last year but lost out
to Comcast, which struck a deal with TWC instead.
Write to Shalini Ramachandran at
shalini.ramachandran@wsj.com
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