The Federal Communications Commission gave a final approval on Friday to a $79 billion merger deal involving Charter Cable, with both Time Warner Cable and Conde Nast-Advance Publication’s owned Bright House Networks.
The FCC approval follows the Department of Justice’s antitrust approval on April 25’s that would start the process to create the second largest cable television provider in the U.S., after Comcast.
FCC approves $79B Charter-Time Warner Cable merger https://t.co/DUHvglJd1p via @RogerYu_
— USA TODAY Money (@USATODAYmoney) May 7, 2016
The antitrust approval came with conditions to protect streaming rivals like Netflix and Hulu, in which Charter will not be allowed to either place data caps on internet services or charge customers based on data usage.
The FCC announced Friday that it approved Charter Communications’ purchase of our parent company, Time Warner Cable: https://t.co/Kt3gFEaeMi
— Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) May 7, 2016
The only approval that is still needed is from the California Public Utilities Commission, which will likely approve the deal on May 12.
Charter approached a deal to merge with Time Warner Cable in early 2015 after Comcast’s attempt at a merger failed when it was rejected by the Department of Justice. Prior to the merger plans, Charter had already agreed to acquire Bright House Networks, the 6th largest cable operator in the U.S. for $10.4 billion.
