US: Charter pursues Time Warner Cable merger

Top executives close to Charter Communications have reached out to management at Time Warner Cable to discuss a possible merger of the cable operators, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

John Malone, chairman of Charter’s biggest shareholder Liberty Broadband called Time Warner Cable’s Chief Executive Officer Rob Marcus “in recent days” to express Charter’s interest in pursuing friendly deal talks, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.

Marcus will reportedly meet with Charter CEO Tom Rutledge this week at the annual National Cable and Telecommunications Association convention in Chicago, which began on Monday. It could prove to be a somewhat awkward conversation after Charter’s attempted hostile takeover of Time Warner Cable last year.

The television industry is rapidly shifting, with a growing number of viewers dropping conventional television packages in favor of streaming video services like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and HBO Now.

Full content: The Wall Street Journal

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