Bright House Networks customers in central Florida are not excited by the news Charter Communications is still pursuing Bright House Networks, and both companies recently agreed to extend the deadline by 30 days for a final deal to be placed on the table.
Charter had bid $10.4 billion to acquire Bright House, which serves customers mostly in the south, including the cities of Tampa and Orlando.
“We look forward to completing the transaction as planned, and our teams are working together to make that happen,” Charter chief executive Tom Rutledge said. Reuters had recently reported Bright House was preparing to “abandon” the Charter deal, believing it was better off with sn existing cooperation agreement with Time Warner Cable.
One reason the merger talks are moving forward could be a sense Bright House’s owners have received that Time Warner Cable is still ready to sell itself to a new buyer after its merger with Comcast collapsed. One of those potential buyers remains Charter itself.
“It’s not great news for Orlando if Charter buys Bright House Networks,” says Mike Donahue, a Bright House customer for over a decade. “I had Charter when I lived in Missouri and they were terrible. I realize Charter is somewhat different today, but consumer ratings still land Charter near the bottom while Bright House has been closer to the top.”
Charter’s ongoing interest in acquiring Bright House may be to use it as a leveraging tool in its pursuit of Time Warner Cable.
Acquiring Bright House would give Charter a stronger balance sheet, allowing it to borrow more money to make a cash-rich offer for Time Warner Cable, analysts said.
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