Altice is preparing to make a $185 billion bid for Charter Communications, the second largest cable operator in the US.
However, reports the Financial Times, it has not made a formal approach and may not proceed.
Furthermore, any prospective deal would depend on whether or not the group and its advisors could secure the huge amount of debt financing needed to support such a bid.
Charter has also not expressed an interest in a possible approach from Altice, or indeed Japan’s SoftBank, which is also known to be interested in acquiring the operator,, Charter Communications has over 26 million subscribers and lists John Malone as a 21% shareholder, while Altice is now a key player in the US cable industry after having acquired Cablevision and Suddenlink.
Quoted by the Financial Times, Greg Maffei, chief executive of Liberty Media, said that the company and Charter would “listen to all and any offers that come in and judge them in their merit and appeal”.
However, he also insisted that any deal appealing to Liberty and other Charter shareholders would have to add real value and real capabilities to what is already a very well-positioned company.
