Charter (CHTR) Stock Soars on Verizon (VZ) Takeover Rumors

VZ CHTR

Shares of Charter Communications (CHTR - Free Report) , the country’s second-largest cable provider, were up more than 8.7% in morning trading Thursday after a new report surfaced claiming that Verizon (VZ - Free Report) is considering a takeover of the company.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam approached officials “close to Charter” and is working with bankers to organize a deal. The WSJ also said that both companies declined to comment on the report.

CNBC also chimed in on the validity of the rumors, originally reporting that talks must have been in the very early stages before later citing sources that claimed “no significant talks” are taking place between Verizon and Charter.

We will have to wait and see if anything actually shakes out between Charter and Verizon, but neither company is a stranger to M&A activity recently. Last summer, Charter cemented its position as a cable behemoth with its takeover of Time Warner, while Verizon is currently in the midst of its acquisition of Yahoo .

Verizon is planning to purchase the struggling search engine for $4.8 billion, but a series of massive data breaches at Yahoo has put a snag in the deal. After revealing in September that the data of nearly 500 million of its customers was compromised in 2014, Yahoo detailed another breach that affected 1 billion of its customers in December.

Regardless, it is clear that Verizon is serious about bolstering its digital media arsenal. The times are changing for the telecomm industry, and traditional providers like Verizon now want a bigger slice of the TV and internet pie.

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