Charter is about to merge with Cox.

[TheRolyPoly 2501]

It looks like Cox Cable could go bye bye as Bloomberg News is breaking a story this morning about a potential deal to merge with Charter a.k.a. Spectrum.

 

Wow.

 

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/charter-advanced-talks-combine-with-cox-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-05-16/

[tyrannical bastard 3990]

3 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

It looks like Cox Cable could go bye bye as Bloomberg News is breaking a story this morning about a potential deal to merge with Charter a.k.a. Spectrum.

 

Wow.

 

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/charter-advanced-talks-combine-with-cox-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-05-16/

Oof.  Those poor Cox customers.  I've heard nothing but awful things about Spectrum. 

 

Maybe Xfinity can put Mediacom out of its misery too.  They're so bad they won't even hook up my street, leaving AT&T fiber as my only option.

[TheRolyPoly 2501]

No more advanced talks.

 

It's official: Charter has agreed to buy Cox for $34.5 billion.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-16/charter-agrees-to-combine-with-cox-in-34-5-billion-cable-deal-maqpb06a

[T.L. Hughes 892]

1 hour ago, TheRolyPoly said:

No more advanced talks.

 

It's official: Charter has agreed to buy Cox for $34.5 billion.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-16/charter-agrees-to-combine-with-cox-in-34-5-billion-cable-deal-maqpb06a

While the Spectrum brand will remain, the Charter name won’t (per a CNBC report):

Quote

The transaction will see the combined company change its name to Cox Communications within a year after the deal closes. Charter’s Spectrum, the brand on its cable, broadband, mobile and other services, will become the consumer-facing brand across all customers.

Cox Enterprises will also own 23% of the shares in the new Cox Communications, which will maintain Charter’s existing Stamford headquarters and old Cox’s existing offices in Atlanta post-closing. 

Edited 19 hours ago by T.L. Hughes

[nathannah 2474]

Really surprised they are keeping the Cox name, but with Spectrum being front-facing for the last decade, it makes sense to abandon Charter (which always sounded similar to a drug rehab center that existed until 2000).

Besides price though, Spectrum is rock solid for me and I rarely lose service, so I must be in a good part of their service area (originally Marcus). It's just sad to see Cox in so many aspects wind down, though.

[SDHIll1980 103]

I'd put this in the category of "Things You Didn't See Coming".  I'm not exact shocked that this happened, especially because of all of these media conglomerates merging or acquiring each other quite frequently.

 

Out here in the West, a Cox-Spectrum merger give them practically total control of service in all of Southern California (from Bakersfield on south to the Mexican border), the Las Vegas region, and most of Arizona (particularly the Phoenix and Tucson DMAs).  I'm in a Spectrum service area (Los Angeles), but there are also of pockets of the DMA that have Cox as their main MVPD, such as the beach cities in southwestern L.A. County, the Harbor area in the city of Los Angeles (San Pedro, Wilmington), and the southern half of Orange County.

[NYAZSporty 136]

3 hours ago, SDHIll1980 said:

I'd put this in the category of "Things You Didn't See Coming".  I'm not exact shocked that this happened, especially because of all of these media conglomerates merging or acquiring each other quite frequently.

 

Out here in the West, a Cox-Spectrum merger give them practically total control of service in all of Southern California (from Bakersfield on south to the Mexican border), the Las Vegas region, and most of Arizona (particularly the Phoenix and Tucson DMAs).  I'm in a Spectrum service area (Los Angeles), but there are also of pockets of the DMA that have Cox as their main MVPD, such as the beach cities in southwestern L.A. County, the Harbor area in the city of Los Angeles (San Pedro, Wilmington), and the southern half of Orange County.

Noticed Cox customers in SoCal, North of San Diego County, don't get the Dodgers RSN SportsNet LA, so Dodgers fans unable to switch last few yrs. to DIRECTV or Spectrum, will soon able to get SNLA.

[mre29 1541]

13 hours ago, nathannah said:

Besides price though, Spectrum is rock solid for me and I rarely lose service, so I must be in a good part of their service area (originally Marcus). It's just sad to see Cox in so many aspects wind down, though.

 

Spectrum is pretty solid for me in CT, as well.

 

[MeAndTheGraphics 5]

17 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

No more advanced talks.

 

It's official: Charter has agreed to buy Cox for $34.5 billion.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-16/charter-agrees-to-combine-with-cox-in-34-5-billion-cable-deal-maqpb06a

I have a question, two actually.

 

Will the merger affect either Spectrum News or Cox Media Group in any way? Despite CMG being owned by Apollo, doesn't Cox Enterprises still own a small part of it?

Edited 3 hours ago by MeAndTheGraphics

[TheRolyPoly 2501]

16 minutes ago, MeAndTheGraphics said:

I have a question, two actually.

 

Will the merger affect either Spectrum News or Cox Media Group in any way? Despite CMG being owned by Apollo, doesn't Cox Enterprises still own a small part of it?

 

Those are very good questions.

 

I think Spectrum News will continue and will more likely expand to cover more areas and with more channels (Gainesville for example possibly receiving Spectrum News 13 from Orlando; Ocala already has it since Spectrum does serve there but no Cox but Cox serves Gainesville but no Spectrum there).

 

CMG is 29% owned by Cox Enterprises. Maybe we'll see some changes regarding CMG but it's too soon to say on that for now.

 

It'll be interesting and weird at first to say Spectrum from Cox instead of from Charter but we'll get used to it (I wish I still lived in Gainesville and had Cox to see the full effect).