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Thursday, February 13, 2014

TAKEOVERCHATTER-How Charter's Time Warner Cable bid woke up a 'sleeping beast', (NASDAQ: CHTR), (NYSE: TWC), (NYSE: TWX)

Talks between Comcast Corp and Charter Communications Inc over how they could together purchase Time Warner Cable Inc quickly soured as the two bickered over price and the feasibility of engineering a split of the No. 2 U.S. cable operator.Charter, backed by billionaire John Malone's Liberty Media Corp, had been pursuing Time Warner for months, but was not making any headway as its larger rival - nearly three times its size by market value - asked for $8 billion more than what it had offered.But Comcast actually believed Time Warner Cable's $160 per share counter to Charter's $132.50 per share bid was reasonable, several people familiar with the situation said on Thursday. At the same time, it worried that splitting a public company with assets in multiple markets and millions of subscribers would be tough, made even harder by the acrimony that had built up over the past eight months between Charter and Time Warner Cable.On Feb. 4 Comcast and Charter met in a last-ditch attempt to see if they could work out their differences, the sources said. They could not.

Charter Communications, Inc. (Charter) provides cable services in the United States, offering a range of entertainment, information and communications solutions to residential and commercial customers. Shares of CHTR fell by 6.29% or $-8.66/share to $128.91. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $76.19 and as high as $144.02. On average, 1312590 shares of CHTR exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 9910588.

Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) is a provider of video, high-speed data and voice services in the United States with systems located in five geographic areas: New York State, the Carolinas, Ohio, Southern California and Texas. Shares of TWC traded higher by 7.02% or $9.5/share to $144.81. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $84.57 and as high as $146.19. On average, 3290400 shares of TWC exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 26664442.

Time Warner Inc. (Time Warner) is a media and entertainment company. Shares of TWX fell by 0.71% or $-0.46/share to $64.60. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $51.62 and as high as $70.77. On average, 5095120 shares of TWX exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 5307848.



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