The Time Warner Cable sweepstakes might be over. Just a few months after it was first reported that the second-largest cable firm in the nation was looking to be acquired, Comcast, the number one cable provider, has made an offer of $45.2 billion for the company.
According to multiple reports, the deal is set to be officially announced Thursday, with Comcast offering $158.82 per share in an all-stock deal.
The deal will make Comcast, already the largest cable company in the U.S., even bigger. Time Warner Cable has about 12 million subscribers, compared to Comcast’s 22 million. But not all of those customers will be joining Comcast, as the company plans to divest 3 million subs under the terms that the companies have agreed to.
One of the markets it’s expected to hold onto is New York City, where Time Warner Cable is the primary provider in Manhattan. Comcast is already a majority owner of NBC Universal, which has its home base there.
There will be a ton of naysayers who believe that this consolidation would be bad for the industry, will lead to less consumer choice, and would give one company too much control of the market. And to that I say, there’s already pretty much a monopoly in the pay TV market, and one company owning more subscribers in a market it didn’t even compete in doesn’t make much of a difference.
Oh, also: As someone who has been both a Comcast subscriber and a Time Warner Cable subscriber, I think Comcast is actually better positioned to make products and services that people like to use. So it’s not all bad for TWC subs.
Interesting side note: The news popped up on the same day it was reported Apple was negotiating with Time Warner Cable to bring the cable provider’s content onto the Apple TV. So there’s, uh, that.
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