Charter Made Multiple TWC Bids Before Comcast Deal, SEC Filings Show

Charter Communications was a frequent suitor for Time Warner Cable before Comcast seemingly trumped it, making acquisition offers three separate times between July 2013 and January 2014, and being rejected each time by TWC's board as being inadequate. That's according to the background of Charter's buying Bright House Networks and TWC included in the preliminary Charter and TWC shareholder proxy vote materials filed Friday with the SEC. Starting in early 2014, Charter began separate negotiations on the acquisition of BHN that ran through the year and into spring 2015, while the Comcast/TWC acquisition was falling apart in the face of FCC concerns about the deal, the proxy materials said. After TWC and Comcast mutually agreed to terminate the deal, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge talked with TWC CEO Robert Marcus about once again looking at a sale, with the two meeting days later at NCTA's annual INTX: the Internet and Television Expo, with Rutledge presenting an offer approved by Charter's board a day earlier of roughly $172.50 per share. That day, an unidentified company also contacted TWC about a possible offer of $180 to $200 per share. That company ultimately told TWC it wouldn't be able to make a formal bid within the time frame TWC specified. The next day, Charter increased its cash-and-stock offer to roughly $195.71 per TWC share. Two days later, May 23, TWC's board unanimously approved the Charter deal.