A WIDE SPECTRUM
Char ter’s options muddied by Malone factor
There’s a battle raging inside Charter Communications, and the outcome could decide whether the cable giant continues its acquisition spree — or gets gobbled up itself.
Charter’s Chief Executive Tom Rutledge — who last year swallowed Time Warner Cable and renamed it Spectrum, making Charter the nation’s third-biggest pay-TV operator — insists that he can increase Charter’s dominance with still more purchases, sources said.
The Post reported in June that Charter was weighing an approach to Cox Communications, an Atlanta-based regional cable provider. More recently, rumors have circulated that Charter has been in talks to do a deal with Altice, which most recently scooped up New York-based Cablevision.
But 76-year-old billionaire John Malone, who is Charter’s biggest shareholder with control of 27 percent of its stock, is meanwhile showing signs that he’s willing to head in the other direction — namely, a sale of Charter at the right price, insiders say.
“I think Malone is a seller,” one source told The Post. The source added that “Malone, though, doesn’t control Charter,” and “the board is totally behind Rutledge.”
The Post reported exclusively Nov. 1 that SoftBank, the Japan-based buyout fund that owns Sprint, had rekindled on-again, off-again talks to acquire Charter.
SoftBank’s billionaire boss Masayoshi Son “has tried in multiple ways to energize Charter,” the source said. “It is an ongoing engagement.”
High-level talks have oc- curred, with SoftBank recently offering $540 a share for Charter, a source said.
Although a deal isn’t imminent, “I wouldn’t count Malone out,” a telecom executive told The Post. “There is a 50- percent chance a SoftBankCharter deal happens in six months.”
Apart from keeping his status as a cable bigwig, insiders say, Rutledge appears to be clinging to stock options that, according to securities filings, would pay out tens of millions of dollars if Charter shares rise above the $564 mark.
“My guess is Rutledge has a few quarters to increase the share price,” the telecom exec said.
Skeptics say a tidal wave of cord-cutting, as viewers flock to cheaper streaming services from Netflix and Amazon, is making that look iffy. Charter’s shares on Friday closed at $338.44, well off a Sept. 6 peak of $403.65.
Still, insiders say Rutledge believes he can boost Charter’s business by hoovering up more cable assets, or even by merging or partnering with other big players.
On Sunday, a spokesman for French cable giant Altice told The Post rumors it is in talks with Charter about a business combination are “absolutely false.” Asked whether any such discussions took place in the recent past, the spokesman declined to comment.
Altice lately has seen its shares hammered by the industry’s woes, leading some investors to argue that it looks vulnerable. Last week CEO Michel Combes resigned, with founder Patrick Drahi returning as president.
Nevertheless, one telecom exec opined that “Patrick just got started in the US. He is young and has big ambitions.”
Charter declined to comment. Liberty, which holds its annual meeting Thursday, did not return calls.