Bright House Networks, the sixth largest U.S. cable operator, will abandon its preliminary $10.4 billion deal to be acquired by Charter Communications, according to a report from Reuters.

The deal with Bright House was contingent on the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger getting completed. With that merger deal dead, Bright House’s owners – the Newhouse family – now believe they are better off remaining independent, at least for now.

Reuters reports discussions between the two companies are ongoing, but are likely to run out without a deal in about two weeks. That will leave intact Bright House’s agreement with Time Warner Cable to share volume-related discounts on programming and technology. With that agreement in place, there may be little interest from Bright House’s owners in another merger deal with a different company in the near future.