Paul Allen plans to sell between $2bn and $3bn worth of stock in his cable company Charter Communications Inc in what is expected to be the largest-ever IPO in the cable industry. According to reports, the move would allow investors to take a piece of a pure cable player, unlike many giant publicly-traded concerns that own cable operations amid a stable of other communications businesses. The company, which currently ranks as the seventh- largest operator, would then use the cash to buy more cable franchises.
In a related development, Allen’s Vulcan Venture may not get the controlling stake in Go2Net Inc that it was hoping for earlier this week. Since Monday’s announcement that Allen was to pay $750m for the 54% stake in the web portal, the company’s shares have jumped from $87 to $115, making Allen’s $90 tender offer – which was to cover a substantial portion of the shares involved in the complex deal – look dead in the water. Vulcan has no plans to up the offer, so it now appears that the investment house will end up with only about 40% of the company, still enough to make it the largest shareholder.
