Charter To Buy Cable Operator BrightHouse Networks

Charter Communications Inc. agreed to buy cable operator Bright House Networks LLC for $10.4 billion in cash and stock, the latest deal in a rapidly consolidating pay-television industry, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Bright House is the sixth-largest cable operator in the U.S. and serves approximately 2 million video customers in central Florida, as well as Alabama, Indiana, Michigan and California.

Charter, currently the country’s fourth-largest cable operator, said it would become the second-largest cable operator after the deal. Shares of Charter jumped 6.9% to $196 in premarket trading.

“Bright House Networks provides Charter with important operating, financial and tax benefits, as well as strategic flexibility,” Charter Chief Executive Tom Rutledge said in a news release.

Connecticut-based Charter has struggled as consumers have turned away from more-traditional forms of pay television toward Internet-based entertainment services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. It had earlier sought to purchase Time Warner Cable, which had a long-standing arrangement to handle programming and technology acquisitions for Bright House.

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