Charter to Buy Time Warner Cable: Winners and Losers

Charter to Buy Time Warner Cable: Winners and Losers

REUTERS/Mike Blake
By Yuval Rosenberg

Charter Communications on Tuesday said it will acquire Time Warner Cable in a deal valued at more than $55 billion. Charter will also buy Bright House Networks, a smaller cable company, for $10.4 billion. The two deals combined will make Charter into the second-largest cable and broadband provider in the U.S., with about 24 million subscribers, behind only Comcast, which has about 27 million subscribers.

WINNERS

Time Warner shareholders: An extra $10 billion over the $45.2 billion Comcast had offered sure makes for a nice payday after the earlier deal got scrapped. “Time Warner Cable has succeeded in extracting a fantastic price for its shareholders, far exceeding our expectations,” Morningstar strategist Michael Hodel wrote Tuesday. Hedge fund managers John Paulson of Paulson & Co. and Chris Hohn of Children’s Investment Fund Management reportedly both had sizable holdings in Time Warner Cable.

Time Warner Cable subscribers: The company’s service is reviled by customers. Charter’s isn’t exactly beloved, either, and subscribers may not see any immediate changes, but Charter promises that the deal will translate into faster broadband for subscribers and more free public Wi-Fi. Whether it actually does or not, the deal seems to spell the end of the Time Warner Cable name. Subscribers won’t miss it.

John Malone: The Liberty Media billionaire finally gets the megadeal he’s been looking for to make Charter Communications into a major industry power. If the deals goes through, the company would become the second-largest cable and broadband provider in the country, with some 24 million total subscribers.

Related: Charter and Time Warner Cable Merger: It’s All About Broadband

LOSERS

Comcast: At least CEO Brian Rogers was graceful about the prospect of a larger competitor. "This deal makes all the sense in the world,” he said in a statement. “I would like to congratulate all the parties."

Television content providers: One rationale for the deal is that the scale of the combined company will afford it more leverage in its negotiations with programmers.

Cable customers and online video watchers? The proposed deal still concerns consumer advocates like those at public interest group Free Press. “The issue of the cable industry's power to harm online video competition, which is what ultimately sank Comcast’s consolidation plans, are very much at play in this deal,” said Derek Turner, research director for Free Press. “Ultimately, this merger is yet another example of the poor incentives Wall Street’s quarterly-result mentality creates. Charter would rather take on an enormous amount of debt to pay a premium for Time Warner Cable than build fiber infrastructure, improve service for its existing customers or bring competition into new communities.”

Obamacare Plans Offer 34 Percent Fewer Choices

iStockphoto
By Suelain Moy

As many predicted, Americans insured under the Affordable Care Act may not be able to keep their doctors--and even their hospitals.

A new study reveals that the average plans provided on the Obamacare health insurance exchanges offer 34 percent fewer providers than the average commercial plan offered outside the exchange.

The analysis from Avalere shows the disparity compared with commercial plans:  

  • 42 percent fewer oncology and cardiology specialists
  • 32 percent fewer mental health and primary care providers
  • 24 percent fewer hospitals

Related: Top 10 Questions Consumers Ask About Obamacare

Exchange Plans

“Patients should evaluate a plan’s provider network when picking insurance on the exchange,” said Elizabeth Carpenter, vice president at Avalere. “Out-of-network care does not accrue toward out-of-pocket maximums, leaving consumers vulnerable to high costs if they seek care from a provider not included in their plan’s network.”

Patients need to evaluate a plan’s provider network when selecting insurance on the exchange, especially if they have a history of cancer or heart disease or require mental health services.

Limiting choice is one way for health exchanges to keep costs down, but ultimately patients bear the cost. “Plans continue to test new benefit designs in the exchange market,” said Dan Mendelson, CEO at Avalere. “Given the new requirements put in place by the ACA, network design is one way plans can drive value-based care and keep premiums low.”

Swipe Gripe

When It Comes to Fees, These Credit Cards Are the Worst

Discover the pros and cons of credit cards that help you build credit.
istockphoto
By Beth Braverman

Two credit cards from First Premier Bank have the most fees of 100 cards researched for a CreditCards.com report released today.

The average number of fees per credit card analyzed was six, but the First Premier Bank Credit Card and the First Premier Bank Secured MasterCard carry 12 potential fees each. The PenFed Promise Visa Card was the only one in the survey that levied no fees at all.

A quarter of the cards surveyed charged an annual fee, although 10 percent waived that fee for a consumers’ first year. All cards except for the PenFed Promise Visa Card charged a late payment fee, which can run up to $25.

Related: What to Know Before Your Teen Gets a Credit Card

Penalty fees tend to be easier for consumers to avoid (don’t make late payments), and it’s worth shopping around for cards that don’t have fees for the transactions you need.

Most cards carry a cash advance fee, typically the greater of either $10 or 5 percent of each cash advance.  Among cards that allow balance transfers, 90 percent charge a fee for doing so, typically $5 or 3 percent of the transfer.

Another common fee was the foreign transaction fee, typically about 3 percent per transaction, charged by 77 percent of cards. “If you travel internationally a lot, a credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees is a great value,” CreditCards.com senior industry analyst Matt Schulz said in a statement. 

If you’re hit with an unexpected, one-time fee, try calling your issuer and asking them for a refund. Often customer service reps are authorized to do so on a case-by-case basis.

MOST POTENTIAL FEES

  • First Premier Bank Credit Card (12)
  • First Premier Bank Secured MasterCard (12)
  • Credit One Visa Platinum (9)
  • Fifth Third Bank Platinum MasterCard (9)
  • Navy Federal Credit Union Platinum (9)
  • Navy Federal Credit Union Cash Rewards (9)
  • Regions Visa Platinum Rewards (9)

FEWEST POTENTIAL FEES

  • PenFed Promise Visa Card (0)
  • ExxonMobil SmartCard from Citi (3)
  • Spark Classic from Capital One (3)
  • Capital One Spark Cash Select for Business (3)
  • Spark Miles Select by Capital One (3)

Amazon vs. Walmart: A Graphic Look at the Numbers on Prime Day

An Amazon.com Inc driver stands next to an Amazon delivery truck in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 21, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
Lucy Nicholson
By Michael Rainey

Amazon’s campaign to create a Christmas-in-July shopping frenzy online seemed to be working on Wednesday, if the sheer number of blog posts debating the pros and cons of its big sales event are any measure.

Marking the company’s 20th anniversary while promoting Amazon Prime -- the $99 a year program which provides free shipping, online video and other perks -- Prime Day promises “more deals than Black Friday,” according to the retailing giant.

While some shoppers complained about lackluster offerings, critics were missing the point. Amazon’s likely goal was not to boost revenues through a massive sale, but to sell more Amazon Prime memberships. As always, Amazon has its eye on the prize of becoming the world’s largest retailer.

Walmart, the current retailer champion, didn’t the challenge sitting down, announcing its own massive online sale beginning July 15. It looks like the battle is on for control of the mass market online shopping space.

How do the two retailing giants stack up? This graphic from WebpageFX provides some basic facts.

Amazon vs. Walmart















Created by WebpageFX

Shock of the Day

Obama All but Calls Cosby a Serial Rapist

A worker cleans graffiti on actor Bill Cosby's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles December 5, 2014. REUTERS/Phil McCarten
PHIL McCARTEN
By Eric Pianin

For months, comedian Bill Cosby has come under relentless attack amid allegations that he raped dozens of women over the years after slipping them drugs. As the controversy grew, some on Capitol Hill questioned whether something should be done to strip the long-celebrated actor of a Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded him in 2002 during the Bush administration.

Today at a White House news conference, President Obama abruptly veered from an extensive defense of the Iran nuclear deal to a thinly veiled denunciation of Cosby as a serial rapist. In response to a reporter’s question of whether he would consider rescinding the medal, Obama said, “There’s no precedent for revoking a medal,” and that “we don’t have the mechanism.”

Then, after  noting that he rarely publicly discusses pending civil law suits that  might result in criminal charges, he made this startling pronouncement: “I’ll say this: If you give a woman -- or a man for that matter -- without his or her knowledge a drug and then have sex with that person without consent, that’s rape.”

It was a dramatic moment as the first African American president in U.S. history denounced from the White House pulpit the conduct of one of the most prominent and (once) beloved black actors and comedians of modern times.

Related: Bill Cosby's Moralizing Comes Back to Haunt Him

Cosby and his lawyers for months have dismissed as fantasy claims by more than two dozen women that they had been sexually assaulted by the actor over the past several decades – frequently after having been given knock-out drugs to make them groggy or put them to sleep.

But this ‘he said-she said’  controversy came to an end earlier this month after Cosby had admitted in a deposition giving Quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with.

The documents, dating back to 2005, stem from a civil lawsuit filed by Andrea Constand -- one of the dozens of women who have publicly accused the comedian of sexual assault. The records were made public after The Associated Press went to court to compel their release.

Following that report, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said it was an outrage that Cosby continued to hold the highest civilian honor in America. In a statement to Politico, a spokeswoman for Gillibrand said Cosby's medal must be revoked "because we need to set a clear example that sexual assault will not be tolerated in this country."

Obama apparently agrees with the senators, but just doesn’t know what he could do to take the medal back. 

Garage or Backyard? Here’s What First-Time House Buyers Want

iStockphoto
By Beth Braverman

More than two-thirds of potential first-time homebuyers want a house in move-in condition, and 43 percent are looking for a place in the burbs.

Beyond that, first-time buyers are most interested in a home with a backyard or pool, striking design, and smart or energy efficient technology, according to the TD Bank First-Time Home Buyer Pulse.

“It’s encouraging to see interest from the first-time homebuyers who have been cautious for much of the housing recovery,” TD Bank Head of Pricing and Secondary Markets Scott Haymore said in a statement. “Consumers are gaining confidence in the economy and many are looking to enter the housing market within the next two years.”

Related: Why First-Time Home Buyers Are Flocking to Tennessee

Last year, first-time homebuyers comprised 38 percent of the market, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Among those surveyed, 62 percent want to make a down payment of at least 20 percent, but nearly two-thirds said they were still saving up for it. Almost half said they needed to pay down debt before they could buy a house.

The average down payment in the first quarter of 2015 was $57,710, reports RealtyTrac. Entry-level buyers usually put down less money than repeat buyers, and are more likely to take advantage of Federal Housing Administration loans, which allow down payments of as little as 3 percent for those who qualify.

Those who can’t get an FHA loan can still put down less than 20 percent by buying private mortgage insurance, with annual premiums of between 0.5 percent and 1 percent of the loan amount.