Charter Gets DOJ Approval For Time Warner, Bright House Acquisitions With Conditions

Shares of Charter Communications Inc. popped more than 4% after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it will allow the media company's proposed $78 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc. and $10.4 billion acquisition of Bright House Networks LLC. Shares of Time Warner Cable were up 3.8% on the news. The DOJ's settlement comes with conditions preventing the merged company from entering agreements making it more difficult for online video distributors to obtain content for programmers, according to a news release. The DOJ also filed a lawsuit that, if approved, will prevent the merged company from stifling competition. The combination of Charter, Time Warner Cable and Bright House would create the second-largest cable company and third-largest multi-channel video programming distributor in the U.S., with more than 17 million subscribers. The DOJ said it will monitor developments in the industry and vigorously enforce the merged company's compliance with the proposed settlement to be sure it doesn't use its influence to restrict or discourage programmers from licensing content to online video distributors.