Charter and Cox have agreed to merge their businesses to create an industry leader in the United States for mobile and fixed communications services and video entertainment. It values Cox at around $34.5 billion. Cox Enterprises will receive $4 billion in cash from a total purchase consideration of $12.9 billion, and will end up with around 23% of the combined company, which will assume $12 billion of Cox’s outstanding debt. The combined company will become Cox Communications and the consumer brand will be Spectrum.
The Cox family of businesses was founded in 1898 and the Cox family acquired its first cable television franchise in 1962, making it the longest continuously serving operator in the business.
“Our family has always believed that investing for the long-term and staying committee to the best interests of our customers, employees and communities is the best recipe for success,” said Alex Taylor, the chairman and chief executive of Cox Enterprises. “In Charter, we’ve found the right partner at the right time and in the right position to take this commitment to a higher level than ever before.”
“We’re honoured that the Cox family has entrusted us with its impressive legacy,” said Chris Winfrey, the chief executive of Charter. “Cox and Charter have been innovators in connectivity and entertainment services — with decades of work and hundreds of billions of dollars invested to build, upgrade, and expand our complementary regional networks to provide high-quality internet, video, voice and mobile services.”
Following the close of the deal, the products of the combined company will launch across the 6.3 million customers of Cox under the Spectrum brand currently used by Charter.
As the largest private broadband company in America, Cox Communications owns network infrastructure across more than 30 states, passing 12.3 million homes and businesses.
Charter has 30.0 million internet customers, which together with 5.9 million from Cox will give the combined company 35.9 million.
With 12.7 million video customers for Charter and 1.7 million from Cox, the combined company will have 14.4 million video customers.
Charter had already overtaken Comcast as the largest video services provider in the United States, as it has been losing customers less rapidly. Comcast has 12.1 million video customers in the Unitd States, which is 1.5 million fewer than it had a year ago. It has 29.2 million residential internet customers in the United States.
The combination of Charter and Cox will be the largest provider of internet and video services in the United States, with a substantial footprint across the county.