Charter Cable closed a merger deal with cable television providers Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, creating the second largest operator of cable television and broadband services in the United States, behind Comcast.
Bright House & Time Warner customers: the merger with Charter is now complete : https://t.co/ltaWfuDHTG pic.twitter.com/0XgbowyaWi
— WTHR.com (@WTHRcom) May 18, 2016
The merger was announced in early 2015 after a failed attempt by Comcast to merge with Time Warner Cable, which was rejected by the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division.
The merger was approved by the DOJ and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in early May and was approved by California’s utilities commission. On Wednesday, Charter announced the deal was completed with a re-branding of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks under the name Spectrum. The deal was valued at $67.1 billion dollars.
Customers for both Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks will not see any new changes other than the name change in the next coming months. Charter’s merger will allow it to enter new markets such as Florida and expand their footprint in major markets like New York City and Los Angeles. The newly combined Charter Communications, will serve more than 25 million customers in 41 states.