Time Warner Cable chief defends merger plan with Comcast

Time Warner Cable’s chief executive defended the cable operator’s proposed merger with industry leader Comcast as the “best way to maximize value for shareholders.”

His comments come after the value of the all-stock deal has dropped to less than $40 billion from $45.2 billion since it was announced, following declines in Comcast’s stock price. Rob Marcus, Time Warner Cable’s chief executive, said that the combination of the two largest cable operators in the US should create the most value in the long term, pointing to the fact that Time Warner Cable shareholders will own about 23 per cent of the combined company. Marcus noted that the regulatory approval for the tie-up, which would control about a third of the US pay-TV and broadband markets, was going as planned and that the integration process between the two companies was going better than expected.