Paul Allen-backed Charter Communications Inc has paid a reported $1.9bn to buy Fanch Communications Inc. This is Charter’s eighth cable television company acquisition for 1999, and its second in two days. Only yesterday, the company bought Los Angeles, California-based Falcon Cable TV for $3.6bn.
Charter’s buying spree is setting it up as one of the biggest cable system owners in the US. Fanch’s 547,000 customers lifts Charter’s audience to around 5.5 million, including 1 million acquired in the Falcon deal. Only AT&T Corp, Time Warner Inc and Comcast Corp can claim more subscribers.
Nascent cable baron Allen bought Charter itself in July 1998 and has spent around $16bn on cable acquisitions since then, according to Reuters. The company is upgrading its network properties to fiber optics ahead of an initial public offering, said to be slated for the third quarter of 1999.
