Charter agrees to buy Time Warner Cable for $55b

Charter Communications Inc agreed to buy Time Warner Cable Inc for about $55 billion in cash and stock, scooping up the cable provider after getting last-minute competition from French billionaire Patrick Drahi.

Charter will pay $195.71 a share - 14 percent above Time Warner Cable's Friday close - with options of $100 and $115 in cash and the remainder in its own stock, according to a statement on Tuesday. Bright House Networks, a smaller cable company that Charter has previously agreed to buy, will also be merged into the combined entity.

Charter, the fourth-biggest US cable company, is clinching a deal with No 2 Time Warner Cable after its early 2014 bid was rejected and Comcast Corp jumped in with a competing offer. Charter got another shot when regulatory scrutiny caused the Comcast deal to fall apart in April and then faced competition last week from Drahi's Altice SA, which was said to have held merger talks with Time Warner Cable.