Charter Communications, Inc. is an American telecommunications company that offers its services to consumers and businesses under the Spectrum brand. Providing services to more than 25 million customers in 41 states, it is the second largest US cable operator by the customer, just behind Comcast, and the third largest pay-TV operator behind Comcast and AT & amp; T U-verse/DirecTV. This is the fifth largest phone provider based on the number of subscriber line subscribers.
In late 2012, with the long Cablevision executive naming, Thomas Rutledge as their CEO, the company relocated its corporate headquarters from St. Louis, Missouri, to Stamford, Connecticut, although many operations still remain based in St. Louis. Louis. On May 18, 2016, Charter became the parent company of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks for a combined $ 71.4 billion, making it the third largest pay-TV service in the United States.
Video Charter Communications
Histori
1993-1998: Awal
The Communications Charter was founded in 1993 by Barry Babcock, Jerald Kent and Howard Wood, formerly a former executive at Cencom Cable Television in St. Louis, Missouri. It was also included in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1993.
In 1995, the Charter paid approximately $ 300 million for controlling interest in Crown Media Holdings and acquired Cable South.
In 1997, Charter and EarthLink merged to provide high-speed Internet access via cable modem to Charter customers in Los Angeles and Riverside, California.
In 1998, Paul Allen bought a controlling interest. The company paid $ 2.8 billion to acquire Dallas-based cable company Marcus Cable. The Communication Charter has 1 million subscribers in 1998.
1999-2008: Listing on NASDAQ; various acquisitions
In November 1999, the company went public, trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange. At that time, there were 3.9 million subscribers.
The charter completed more than 10 major acquisitions in 1999 at that time:
- Added 68,000 customers in Southern California with the purchase of four cable systems from American Cable Entertainment of Stamford, Connecticut.
- Acquired 400,000 InterMedia Partners customers, especially in the Southeast. As part of the deal, Charter will hand over its approximately 140,000 subscribers to TCI in exchange of a cable system.
- Join Marcus Cable
- The cabled system serves 460,000 subscribers from Rifkin Acquisition Partners and InterLink Communications.
- Acquired 173,000 customers, mostly in central Massachusetts, from Greater Media Inc. based in New Jersey.
- Acquired Renaissance Media Group, a New York partnership that serves 130,000 customers near New Orleans, western Mississippi, and Jackson, Tennessee.
- Acquired New Jersey-based Helicon Cable Communications. The system serves approximately 171,000 customers in eight states in Southeast and Northeast.
- Acquired Avalon Cable TV, adding 260,000 customers primarily in Michigan and Massachusetts.
- Acquired Vista Broadband Communications in Smyrna, Georgia, adds 30,000 more subscribers.
- Acquired Los Angeles Falcon Cable TV. Falcon is the eighth largest cable operator in the United States with about one million subscribers in 27 states in non-urban areas.
- Acquisition of Fanch Communications Inc. from Denver. Fanch has 547,000 customers in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Wisconsin.
Charter also began trading customers with other systems to improve the geographical grouping of the system. In December 1999, he signed a letter of intent with AT & amp; T Corporation to exchange 1.3 million cable subscribers at St. Louis as well as in Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri. In 2000, the Communications Charter bought selected AT & T cable markets, including Reno, Nevada, and St. Louis.
In 2001, MSN and the Charter signed an agreement to offer MSN content and services to Charter broadband customers. In the same year, the Charter received awards, including the Company's Growing Company's Extraordinary Growth Award for Corporate Growth, R.E. "Ted" Turner Innovator of the Year Award from the Southern Cable Telecommunication Association, and the 50 Quick Award for Growth from St. Chamber of Commerce Louis and the Growth Association.
In 2008, the stock charter failed to meet NASDAQ standards and was given a warning to comply with on October 13th or request an extension.
Also in 2008, he acquired a cable television franchise and service for Cerritos and Ventura, California, an area of ​​Wave Broadband.
2009: Archiving and occurrence of bankruptcy protection
In February 2009, the Charter Communications announced that it plans to file Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code on or before April 1, 2009. This action will enable the Charter to pay its debt obligations, and cancel its obligations to shareholders. Private equity firm Apollo Management is expected to own most of the Charter shares after the bankruptcy. The charter was filed for pre-arranged bankruptcy on March 28, 2009. The company expects a financial restructuring to reduce its debt by $ 8 billion, and add $ 3 billion in new investments, and refinance other debts.
On November 30, 2009, his bankruptcy plan was approved, which extinguished his stake and slashed about $ 8 billion in debt. That day, the Charter emerged from bankruptcy despite much creditor's rejection of its bankruptcy plan.
2010-2012: The second list on NASDAQ; Paul Allen withdrew
On September 14, 2010, Common Charter Class Shares are re-registered on NASDAQ with the symbol "CHTR".
In 2011, Paul Allen resigned as chairman and chairman of the board, but at the time remained the largest single shareholder. Also in that year, the Charter signed a multi-year agreement with TiVo to submit content through its platform.
Thomas M. Rutledge is appointed as director and president and chief executive officer effective February 13, 2012.
In the same year, the Charter assigned $ 1.25 billion of senior debt, offering to pay short-term and long-term debt.
2013-2014: Purchase of an Optimum West operation; Liberty Media Investment
On February 8, 2013, the Charter announced an agreement to acquire some of Bresnan's previous communications systems from Cablevision in transactions worth US $ 1.63 billion. The deal brings the Charter Cable system to 375,000 customers in the Colorado and Western Slopes, as well as in Utah, Wyoming and Montana.
About one month later, on March 19, 2013, the Charter announced that Liberty Media, a company controlled by former TCI CEO John C. Malone, would acquire a 27.3% stake in the company, making it the single largest shareholder of the company, mostly through purchases interests held by investment funds after the 2009 charter restructuring. In November 2014, Liberty's ownership in the Charter as well as minority interest in Time Warner Cable was separated as a separate holding company called Liberty Broadband Corporation, which in early 2015 was 47.1% controlled by Malone.
2014-2017: Acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House
On January 13, 2014, the Charter Communications said it was interested in purchasing larger rival Time Warner Cable. After three previous attempts to buy and join the company, all of which failed, Charter Chief Executive Officer Thomas Rutledge wrote in an open letter to Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Officer Robert Marcus stating, "I believe we have a significant opportunity to put companies together in a way that will create maximum long-term value for shareholders and employees of both companies ". The offer of $ 132.50 per share, just above the TWC closing price at $ 132.40 on Jan. 13, was declined.
On February 13, 2014, Time Warner Cable received a $ 158.82 per share offer from Comcast, avoiding a hostile takeover situation from the Charter.
On April 28, 2014, Comcast and Charter announced that, assuming the merger of Comcast with Time Warner was successful, the Charter would get 1.4 million Comcast/Time Warner Cable subscribers, bringing in a total of Charter customers up to 30 million and making the Charter, by its own count, the second largest cable operator in the country. In addition to the 1.4 million subscribed customers, Comcast also agreed to exchange 1.6 million subscribers with the Charter in an efficient tax exchange, whose goal is to increase the geographic spread of both companies. In the third part of the agreement, Comcast will cut 2.5 million subscribers into a new public company in which the Charter will hold a 33% stake - with the option to eventually own the entire company - and Time Warner Cable shareholders will hold 67% of the shares.
At the end of March 2015, Charter announced plans to purchase Bright House Networks from Advance/Newhouse for $ 10.4 billion in cash and equity combinations that can be converted into Charter shares. The agreement relies on, among other agreements, the settlement of Charter transactions with Comcast, and the termination of Time Warner Cable's rights on the first offer to buy Bright House itself (which is not expected to be made in connection with the merger with Comcast). However, facing potential difficulties in reaching regulatory approval, Comcast canceled its merger with Time Warner Cable in April 2015.
On May 26, 2015, Charter and Time Warner Cable announced that they had signed a definitive agreement for the Charter to join Time Warner Cable in a deal worth $ 78.7 billion. The charter also confirmed that it would continue with the proposed acquisition of Bright House Networks under slightly modified requirements. The deal is subject to regulatory approval, although the deal is expected to face less oversight from the FCC than the Comcast/TWC deal, since companies are relatively smaller, and their media ownership is not as extensive as Comcast. The TWC and Bright House systems will be migrated to the Charter Spectrum brand after the merger conclusion.
Liberty Broadband will invest a further $ 5 billion in Charter and will ultimately hold about 20% interest in the combined entity. Advance/Newhouse will have about 14%, and other Time Warner Cable shareholders are currently expected to hold a 44% joint share. The merger is approved by the Department of Justice and FCC on April 25, 2016; it depends on the conditions, including the requirement that the Charter should not apply usage-based billing, or use its dominant position in the market to affect the online video industry - which includes a prohibition on charging for interconnection. The charter is also required to expand its services to 2 million new households, with at least 1 million being in the market where the competitor operates.
This merger was completed on May 18, 2016. This purchase made the charter the third largest pay-TV company in the United States, behind AT & amp; T and Comcast (the former has completed the merger with DirecTV in mid 2015).
2017-present: Recent developments
On January 26, 2017, it was reported that Verizon Communications was in talks with Charter to discuss a possible purchase. Liberty Media president and CEO Greg Maffei said they were not interested in the deal. The deal was rejected around late May 2017. The charter claims that the deal is too low for them to receive, and the largest shareholder of the Liberty Media Charter declares that they are not ready to sell.
In March 2017 under the new FCC leadership, Charter's regulatory conditions were changed to require the Charter to extend its services to the 2 million households currently not served by broadband providers, as opposed to requiring one million of these households to be in areas served by rivals. The decision was made under the aims by new chief Ajit Pai to increase broadband availability in rural areas not served by high-speed Internet, but was criticized for maintaining the oligarchy rather than encouraging wider competition.
In May 2017, it was reported that Charter and Comcast have signed an agreement to "explore cooperation in a number of potential operational areas in wireless space" with respect to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs); both providers have an agreement with Verizon Wireless to resell the service, and Comcast announced that it will start doing so under the Xfinity Mobile brand later in the year. The agreement covers terms, which last for one year, which require the company to receive approval from each other before making any wireless related acquisitions or mergers.
On June 21, 2017, it was reported that the Charter is in talks to buy Cox Communications.
On March 12, 2018, it was reported that SoftBank now owns 5% of the company after buying them on the open market (laying the foundation over the past year for purchase by Sprint).
Maps Charter Communications
Operation
Current operation
Coverage
The Charter Communications offers services to approximately 25 million people in 41 states with significant coverage in 48 states.
In August 2008, the Charter Communications announced an agreement to bring the Big Ten Network, applicable to all customers.
In May 2009, Comcast was able to comply with the NFL Network, where the NFL Network agreed to lower the asking price per subscriber. Higher demand prices have become a problem with being taken with other cable networks. Roger Goodell is looking to settle differences with other cable providers, to include the Communications Charter, to allow for the transport of this channel.
In August 2011, the NFL Communications and Network Charter announced that it has reached a new long term agreement to bring the NFL Network in time for the 2011 season.
In November 2013, the company announced the re-branding of its residential services to Charter Spectrum that included an upgrade to an all-digital network for video, voice and broadband services. Companies rely heavily on network based coaxial cable. Newer fiber optic delivery service systems provide higher bandwidth speeds than are available with their coaxial cable infrastructure.
In August 2014, the Communication Charter agreed to bring SEC Network, a new channel from ESPN that airs football and other sports from the Southeastern Conference.
Call centers
On May 2, 2006, the company announced it would restructure its seven call centers in the United States at the following locations:
Orders completed online or through retail partners with the Communications Charter are directed to a call center located in Tempe, Arizona, operated by Teletech (Direct Alliance). This call center has an incoming/outgoing sales agent, as well as an online chat agent. The call center being outsourced was carried out in 2006 and is located in Canada, Honduras and the Philippines.
Charter's call centers are located in St. Louis, Missouri (telephone support service center); Billings, Montana; Greenville, South Carolina; Vancouver, Washington; Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Walker, Michigan; Rochester, Minnesota; Worcester, Massachusetts, and Louisville, Kentucky (the largest call center in the whole company), with Heathrow, Florida, handling most of the video, high-speed data, and phone billing and customer service contacts.
By 2016, Charter announces that it will add 20,000 jobs based in the United States, with much of this work being call center work.
Former operations
On March 27, 2006, Charter announced that it will sell a cable system that serves approximately 43,000 customers in Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah to Orange Broadband Holding Company (since renamed Baja Broadband).
The charter also sells cable systems in West Virginia and Virginia to Cebridge Connections (now known as Suddenlink Communications) and cable systems in Kentucky and Illinois to New Wave Communications.
On October 14, 2008, an article appeared in Fairmont Sentinel Fairmont, Minnesota, reported that the Charter sold part of their system to Midcontinent Communications, including the Charter offices in Bemidji and International Falls, Minnesota. Starting February 1, 2009, Midcontinent Communications (now known as Midco) took over several Charter cable systems in Minnesota including Balaton, Bemidji, Canby, Ely, Fairmont, International Falls, Littlefork, Sherburn, and surrounding communities. Other areas in Minnesota will be sold to Comcast, but the deal failed.
On October 22, 2010, the Charter announced the completion of the sale of cable systems serving approximately 65,000 customers in seven states to Cobridge Communications, LLC (now known as Fidelity Communications). Head 36 ends were acquired by Cobridge located in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas. As a result of this sale, the Charter no longer operates in Arkansas.
Technology
Charter uses various technologies throughout its service area. Most customers are still served with older set top boxes and video recorders (DVR). The charter has indicated that they are planning to deploy new WorldBox throughout its service area. It also plans to standardize services to Time Warner Cable and new Bright House Networks customers by moving all customers to the digital network, and setting up Internet speed standards throughout its service area.
Belo Corporation Dispute
In December 2008, three television stations owned by Belo Corporation prior to acquisition by Gannett in 2014 (WFAA-TV, WCNC-TV, and KMOV-TV) reported that from January 1, 2009, the Charter Communications will no longer bring this station because interference in negotiations. The Charter Communications quickly responded that the resolution to the problem was not out of the question. The cable operator will lose access to all Belo's stations. However, the agreement was reached several days before the closing date.
Awards and acknowledgments
In 2011, PCWorld awarded the Charter with several "ISP fastest" awards. The Charter has increased its Internet speed and provided most of its customers a free increase in speed twice during the 2011 business year.
During the spring of 2008, the Charter was honored with a third position among companies with more than 2,000 employees in the annual "Best Place to Work in St. Louis" competition, sponsored by St. Louis Business Journal , based on the responses of Charter employees in the area against online surveys created and maintained by Journals .
The lucky rating is 96 (August 25, 2017).
Criticism
In 2007, PC World rated the Charter cable Internet service as the worst among the 14 major Internet service providers. In addition, the High Speed ​​Charter was ranked 19th out of 22 cable ISPs at dslreports.com, and Consumer Reports indicated in the February 2008 edition that the TV/Internet/Charter package collectively is the worst of all. major national operators.
It is reported by Tony Bradle at about.com that the Charter Communications redirected error pages and Windows Live Search results to the Charter search page without notifying customers. Users can opt out of redirects by clicking on links from the Charter search page; however, the opt-out link saves the cookie on the customer's computer, so deleting the cookie will require the user to sign out again.
It was reported that on January 21, 2008, while routinely sweeping off inactive accounts, the Charter inadvertently deleted email accounts of about 14,000 subscribers; worse, deleted data can not be fixed. The Company has since decided to grant a $ 150 account credit for each affected user. In May 2008, the Charter announced that it plans to monitor websites visited by high-speed Internet customers through partnerships with advertising firms targeted by NebuAd. After customers voiced their concerns, Charter changed its mind in June.
Legal Charges
In 2002, the US Department of Justice investigated the company, which led to the indictment of four former executives in 2005 due to improper financial reporting mainly related to the inflation of the number of cable subscribers to increase financial figures.
In 2004, the Charter resolved a class action lawsuit regarding questionable financial reporting related to the US Justice Department investigation in 2002 and subsequent charges against four former executives. The current and former shareholders (and their lawyers) are awarded $ 144 million and the agreement of the Charter to maintain and implement appropriate corporate governance measures.
In June 2010, the Charter completed a $ 18 million class action lawsuit related to wage and overtime claims for current and previous field technicians in California, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and Nebraska.
In December 2013, a complaint was filed by Steelhead Licensing LLC for patent infringement of United States Patent 8082318; it is described as "Controlling service requests sent from client to server".
In January 2016, the National Association of African-American Owned Media and Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios filed a $ 10 billion civil rights suit against the Charter, claiming discrimination over the Charter's refusal to take the chain of eight Allen channels (which mainly brings ES content syndicated through local television stations and paid programs); Allen and NAAAOM (who owns Entertainment Studio executives as their lead) have filed similar claims against several other providers.
On May 12, 2016, the Charter reached a settlement with the FCC on allegations by Zoom Telephonics that, in 2012, after the introduction of the new tariff plan and the introduction of DOCSIS 3.0, it has begun to bar new customers or they are switching to new plans from utilizing purchased modems customer. Although the Charter terminates this practice in 2014 and begins to allow some certified modems to be used, Zoom believes that companies are still deliberately limiting options by requiring the modem to undergo testing protocols regarding factors beyond whether they cause unauthorized service interruption or acceptance ( only two factors can be used by the provider to restrict the allowed modems under FCC policy). The charter pays $ 640,000 in fine, and agrees to use a shorter testing process that allows the use of a DOCSIS 3.0 compatible modem, and sends compliance reports to the FCC every six months and whenever the modem is blacklisted.
On February 1, 2017, the Charter was sued by the New York Attorney General for failing to grant the Internet speed advertised to customers in an area purchased by the Charter by purchasing Time Warner Cable.
On August 28, 2017, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley announced a settlement with Charter Spectrum, AKA Charter Communications. Alleged Spectrum Charter allegations violate No-Call and state and federal telemarketing laws. Under completion, the Charter approves the payment of $ 225,000 and for conditions designed to prevent and quickly resolve any potential future violations. Unwanted telemarketing calls each year topped the list of complaints received by the Office of the Prosecutor-General.
Authorized sponsors
- Los Angeles Lakers (NBA)
- St. Louis Cardinals (MLB)
- St. Louis Blues (NHL)
- Missouri Tigers (SEC)
- Charlotte Hornets (NBA)
- JTG Daugherty Racing (Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series)
- Richard Childress Racing (Monster Energy NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series)
- US Open (through the absorption of an existing Time Warner Cable sponsorship deal with the United States Tennis Association; now using the Spectrum brand)
See also
- List of US phone companies
- List of cable television companies
- List of Connecticut companies
- Spectrum Sport
- Spectrum News
- SportsNet LA
References
External links
- Charter.comÃ, - Communication Charter home page
- Charter.netÃ, - Charter customer site
- Charter Telephone - VoIP voice communications service
- Business Spectrum - for small business customers
- Spectrum EnterpriseÃ, - for bigger business customers
- Chartertv.comÃ, - The website for local-origination channels on the Charter system in St. Louis
- Spectrum ReachÃ, - Charter's advertising sales department
- Charter en EspaÃÆ' Â ± olÃ, - Charter website content in Spanish
- Charter support page at charter.netÃ,
- Associated Press, April 23, 2005, "Communication Charter Executive sentenced in accounting scheme", detnews.com
- BusinessWeek, May 29, 2006: "Charter: Cable's Sucker Stock", businessweek.com
- Submission of the Charter for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection, finance.yahoo.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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