FCC Approves Charter-Cox Combo

The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau approved Charter Communications’ (NASDAQ: CHTR) $34.5 billion acquisition of privately-held Cox Enterprises, Inc.’s residential cable, commercial fiber, and managed IT and cloud businesses on Friday. The combined company will take the Cox name and use the brand name Spectrum for the consumer market, becoming the largest residential ISP in the country, with about 36 million subscribers and about 70 million passings, according to the FCC and the merged entity. 

Charter will now indirectly control Cox’s residential broadband, video, mobile, and voice businesses; its advertising and enterprise businesses; and its Segra fiber, Unite Private Networks infrastructure, and RapidScale cloud services businesses. 

After the transaction is finalized, Charter pledged to invest billions of dollars to upgrade its network and deliver broadband service to homes and businesses nationwide. Charter will onshore all of the job functions currently handled off-shore by Cox within 18 months, matching Charter’s own commitment to a 100 percent U.S.-based customer sales and service employee workforce, according to the Commission. 

Charter also committed to extending its industry jobs practices, including a $20/hour minimum starting wage to Cox workers. All employees receive full benefits, including “Invest in America” Trump accounts and opportunities for investment and growth.