Cable and pay-TV acquisitions and almost-deals at a glance
Charter Communications agreed to buy Time Warner Cable on Tuesday for $55.33 billion. Here's a look at some of the biggest cable and pay-TV deals, and deals that almost happened, in the last few years.
2015
May: France's Altice SA says it will buy a 70-percent stake in Suddenlink Communications of Missouri in a deal that values Suddenlink at $9.1 billion.
April: After more than a year, Comcast gives up on its bid to buy Time Warner Cable. The deal would have combined the two largest U.S. cable companies, but regulators opposed the sale.
March: Charter agrees to buy another cable provider, Bright House Networks, for $10.4 billion
2014
November: London-based Liberty Global paid $13 billion for around 70 percent of Dutch cable provider Ziggo. Liberty Global already owned the rest of Ziggo.
November: BSkyB of Britain buys Sky Italia and 57 percent of Sky Deutschland for $8.6 billion from U.S. media giant 21st Century Fox. BSkyB changes its name to Sky when the deal closes.
July: British telecommunications company Vodafone PLC buys Spanish cable company Ono for $10 billion as it moves to expand its business across Europe.
July: Months after Comcast agrees to buy Time Warner Cable, reports surface that 21st Century Fox made its own bid for the company, offering about $76 billion for Time Warner Cable. However Time Warner Cable rejected the bid.
May: AT&T, the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier, agrees to buy satellite TV company DirecTV last spring for $48.5 billion.
February: Comcast agrees to buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion.
January: Charter offers to buy Time Warner Cable for $38 billion.
2013
October: Vodafone buys Kabel Deutschland, the largest cable operator in Germany, for about $10 billion.
June: Liberty Global buys Britain's Virgin Media for about $22.6 billion.
May: Liberty Media Corp. buys a 27-percent stake in Charter Communications for $2.62 billion. The business is now part of Liberty Broadband Corp. Those companies, along with Liberty Global and Liberty Broadband, are run by billionaire John Malone.
March: Comcast acquires the remaining 49 percent of NBCUniversal from General Electric for $16.7 billion.
2011
January: Comcast takes a 51-percent stake in NBCUniversal in a deal that values the business at around $30 billion.
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