Charter Communications Inc’s acquisitions of Time Warner Cable Inc and Bright House Networks were approved in a announcement by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission which confirmed the acquisition on Friday.  Approval from regulators in California is the last approval that the deal s need to help create the second-largest U.S. broadband provider and third-largest video provider.

California’s public utilities commission was recommended to approve of the deal by a state administrative judge last month. The decision is expected at a May 12 hearing.

The transactions have “significant benefits” including greater competition, broader access to affordable broadband, and new U.S. jobs, Tom Rutledge, president and chief executive of Charter, said in a statement on Friday. Rutledge said that the FCC-imposed conditions “are largely extensions of the longstanding consumer friendly values and practices of our company”.

A majority of the five-member FCC voted to approve the deals earlier this week.

An “order detailing the commission’s reasoning and the conditions will be issued in the coming days,” the FCC said in a statement on Friday.

The deal for Time Warner Cable at $56.7 billion, excluding debt and the acquisition of Bright House at $10.4 billion was valued by Charter.

Earlier Charter and Time Warner Cable shareholders approved the companies’ deal and the U.S. Justice Department gave antitrust approval to the acquisitions with conditions on April 25.

Coming at a time when the pay television industry faces stagnation due to new competition from over-the-web rivals like Netflix Inc and Hulu, the Justice Department’s approval carried conditions designed to protect competition. As part of the approval process, the content providers cannot also sell shows online and the Justice Department said Charter agreed to refrain from telling this information to its content providers.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said that with one million served by a broadband competitor, the conditions placed on FCC approval would require Charter to extend high-speed internet access to another two million customers within five years. As far back as 2013, Time Warner was pursued by Charter, backed by billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp.

Time Warner Cable rejecting unsolicited approaches by Charter and instead finding a white knight in Comcast Corp, the No. 1 U.S. cable services provider, which ultimately abandoned the transaction ended a series of acrimonious exchanges in 2013 and early 2014 between the two companies.

In a $17.7 billion deal that includes assumption of debt, the FCC separately also approved of the European telecoms group Altice NV’s acquisition of U.S. cable company Cablevision Systems Corp.

The state of New York and New York City are the two authorities that the Dutch firm still needs approval from. Altice would become the fourth largest U.S. cable provider if the deal is approved. Cablevision has 3.1 million subscribers, mostly in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

(Adapted from Reuters)

Categories: Economy & Finance, Strategy