The “Industrial Logic” of Charter Communications buying the...
The “Industrial Logic” of Charter Communications buying the larger Time Warner Cable “Is Sound,” wrote a Citigroup analyst at the start of a report to investors Friday. “The cable industry is 50 years old, but is still woefully fragmented. Escalating…
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programming costs, the rising importance of heavy user interface investments (think Comcast’s X1 platform) and the need to develop an industry-wide ad platform all augur for further consolidation.” Spokespeople for Charter and Time Warner Cable had no comment on the report. Charter’s market value is less than half that of Time Warner Cable’s, wrote the analyst, Jason Bazinet. Liberty Media’s investment in Charter, that operator’s “pending turn-around, the industry’s lack of scale,” Charter CEO Tom Rutledge’s “managerial acumen and historically low interest rates” all “suggest” the “industry is poised to consolidate,” wrote Bazinet. “The only question is this: which firm will Charter acquire?"