The same week French billionaire Patrick Drahi announced a deal to acquire Suddenlink for $9.1 billion, Drahi also visited New York as part of talks about a Time Warner Cable acquisition as well. The Wall Street Journal reports that Drahi met with Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus on Wednesday about a potential cash and stock takeover offer.
It's unclear from the report how serious negotiations are, since Time Warner Cable's also currently in talks with Charter.
Time Warner Cable may be using the added bruit to drive up its asking price, but after the money Altice paid for Suddenlink (many analysts think Altice overpaid), Altice may be the bigger fish:
quote:
Altice is in talks with Time Warner Cable about a potential cash-and-stock takeover offer, the people said. Meanwhile, Charter Communications is in talks with Time Warner Cable about a bid that is likely to be well north of the $170 a share previously speculated by some analysts, other people familiar with the matter said.
Altice's entrance into an already gossip-fueled session of US cable merger mania has even sparked rumors that Cablevision, an acquisition target rumor for most of the last decade, could finally see a sale. Meanwhile, FCC boss Tom Wheeler is rumored to have
personally called the heads of Time Warner Cable and Charter to suggest that the agency wouldn't block their merger, as its impact would be notably smaller than the now dead Comcast deal.
Add in a potential sale of Bright House Networks and you've got an amazing number of moving parts in the US cable broadband market. There's tens of millions of customers and employees who don't know who their ISP/employer will be one year from now.
Update:
Reuters is also reporting that Altice is talking to banks about financing a Time Warner Cable acquisition.
