NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Charter Communications, one of the nation's fastest-growing companies, is on the move again.
The St. Louis company owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will gain cable systems serving about 260,000 customers in a complicated $2.4 billion deal with Nashville-based InterMedia Partners and Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) of Englewood, Colo.The transaction announced Wednesday involves cash and trades and spinoffs of cable systems in nine states.
InterMedia will cede about 700,000 customers in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee to the two companies. InterMedia will continue to own and manage systems serving about 465,000 customers in Kentucky, Georgia and North Carolina.
Charter will pay InterMedia an unspecified amount and give TCI systems serving 140,000 customers in Indiana, Kentucky, Utah and Montana. In exchange, Charter will receive InterMedia cable systems serving about 400,000 customers in Greenville and Spartanburg, S.C.; Athens and Gainesville, Ga.; Asheville and Marion, N.C.; Kingsport, Cleveland and Alcoa, Tenn.; and some West Tennessee communities.
TCI, in the midst of a merger with AT&T, will give up its 49 percent ownership of InterMedia for InterMedia's 300,000 customers in the Nashville area and Charter's systems in several Indiana communities; Shelbyville, Ky.; Logan, Utah; and Milltown, Mont.
It is expected TCI and InterMedia will strike a deal for InterMedia to continue managing and operating the Nashville market, officials at the companies said.
TCI President Leo J. Hindery said acquiring the Nashville market fits well with the company's strategy of targeting major metropolitan areas. He also said it offers TCI the opportunity "to deploy advanced communications services that are contemplated" after the merger with AT&T.
TCI, the nation's second-largest cable company, provides local phone service through its cable systems in Hartford, Conn., and the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Ill., said TCI spokeswoman Katina Vlahadamis.
AT&T has announced plans to spend billions of dollars upgrading TCI's cable systems to handle all-in-one packages of TV, local phone and Internet services. The TCI acquisition is valued at about $43 billion.
Jerald L. Kent, Charter president and chief executive officer, said the InterMedia systems would be "nicely clustered" with its existing cable systems and will allow the company to "deliver the next generation of advanced data and transactional services."
The six-year-old Charter was ranked the eighth-fastest-growing company in the country by Inc. magazine last year, when it announced plans to acquire Marcus Cable.
When that deal is completed early this year, Charter will be the nation's seventh-largest cable operator with 2.4 million customers.
A definitive agreement among TCI, Charter and InterMedia will be finalized over the next couple of months and the transaction is expected to close this summer, pending regulatory and other approvals, the companies said.