Business

Comcast to acquire Time Warner Cable in $45.2B deal

There’s a new king of cable and his name is Brian Roberts — not John Malone.

Comcast will become the first ever national cable company with systems in all the major markets following a stealthy back door $45.2 billion deal to acquire New York’s Time Warner Cable both companies announced Thursday.

Comcast, run by Roberts, made a friendly offer of $158.82 per share as part of an all stock deal.

The price is a 17.3 percent premium over TWC’s $135.31 closing price on Wednesday.

Premarket trading Thursday morning in shares of Time Warner Cable rallied 12 percent, while Comcast shares dropped 4 percent.

The Comcast offer beat a hostile run at TWC by John Malone-backed Charter Communications, which offered just $132.50.

Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus consistently said the company would accept a deal at $160 a share.

Charter had put up a slate of nominees to replace TWC’s board as it girded for a proxy fight — but several executives, including major shareholder Mario Gabelli, of Gamco Investors, balked at the slate without first seeing John Malone sweeten the offer.

Comcast, with 21.7 million subscribers, saw the value of consolidating its power through buying TWC and its 11.6 million subs, sources told The Post. The deal gives Comcast the prized Manhattan and Los Angeles markets.

Richard Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG, told The Post it “looks like Brian Roberts is getting the last laugh on John Malone and Charter. The Lion fails to get his prey.”

Comcast could be willing to divest around three million subscribers to keep its dominance in check, sources told The Post. That could mean getting the combined company to control less than 30 percent of the industry.

That may appease federal regulators, who are more than likely going to look at the deal, despite assurances from both Roberts and Marcus that they believe the deal will go through.

The combined company will see $1.5 billion in operating efficiencies with 50 percent of those efficiencies coming in the first year, sources said.

Neil Smit, Comcast’s cable chief, will remain in place, sources said.

It remains to be seen if there’ll be room for Marcus or any other TWC management at the new company.

Comcast will also commit to extending its stock buyback program by $10 billion at the close of the transaction, sources said.

The move is a huge upset, leaving John Malone’s Liberty Media out in the cold — for now.

Liberty Media acquired a 27 percent stake in Charter Communications, in the hopes of turning it into a “horizontal acquisition machine” to consolidate the cable industry and fight against higher programming fees — and find a Netflix killer.

Time Warner Cable declined comment.

Charter’s debt load and seeming inability or unwillingness to boost its initial offer played right into Comcast’s hands.

The move could bring New York customers an improved cable service.

Comcast is known for honing on technical innovation and offering superior services such as Video On Demand and online video services such as Streampix. The move is a huge win for Roberts who is now lay claim to the “King of Cable” title held by Malone.