AfterDawn: News

Charter Communications to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Charter Communications, the fourth largest cable company in the US, has announced its intention to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, on or before April 1st.

The company has restructured its debt obligations and could see a reduction of almost $8 billion in debt. The ISP noted it has about $800 million in liquid cash to help with restructuring and daily operations during its bankruptcy.



Current common stock holders will have their shares canceled, but debt holders and bond holders can recieve "new notes, equity or cash, depending on the seniority and terms of the agreement."

Paul Allen, co-founder of software giant Microsoft, controls Charter and will remain on the board with the largest voting interest.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Feb 2009 2:26

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• 20 comments

• ZippyDSM

  Oh sht if comiecast buys them up I dunno if thats a good thing...

  15.2.2009 02:32 #1

• blake1234

  good for comcast and stock holders.

  15.2.2009 03:26 #2

• pollution

  Quote:good for comcast and stock holders.
  False
  I'm not picking on you blake1234 but just watch the price of the stock for a while now for comcast and you will see what I mean.

  15.2.2009 12:51 #3

• sssharp

  Maybe good for stock in 7 years. The big problem is cities making companies buy that territory and then hoping they get enough residents to purchase the program. I am one potential customer that said ota is good enough with so much online sites to get the show.

  15.2.2009 13:07 #4

• garmoon

  Glad to see their business model hasn't changed. They're keeping the same person in charge that got them to this outcome. No wonder Americans have just about stopped buying everything. Most still have the money, but are gonna teach these idiots and thieves a lesson. Just remember, we, the people, do control the economic stabilty in each of our own countries. LMAO

  15.2.2009 14:26 #5

• Fiji5555

  oops I guess the $98 I owed them and never paid broke them hahahahahaha......too bad. Disconnected my cable for failure to make monthly payments but then got a notice later saying I still owed them but I saw the SS number on the notice wasn't mine lmao......try getting THAT money Charter! :)

  15.2.2009 17:44 #6

• jimfitter

  Originally posted by Fiji5555: oops...
  Huh? What does you being a deadbeat have to do with any of this?
  
  Cable, by its nature, is an antiquated technology. You can only squeeze so much bandwidth into it. I'm sure many more [cable providers] will follow, in the the coming years.

  15.2.2009 19:35 #7

• blake1234

  I don't see cable becoming outdated, i think it will more likely just change with time.
  

  16.2.2009 03:13 #8

• cart0181

  Quote:Originally posted by Fiji5555: oops...
  Huh? What does you being a deadbeat have to do with any of this?
  
  Cable, by its nature, is an antiquated technology. You can only squeeze so much bandwidth into it. I'm sure many more [cable providers] will follow, in the the coming years.I presume you live in LA and have a fiber connection? And I suppose you would call my measly 5MB/512kbps connection antiquated? Fiji5555 was making a joke. I guess all that $$$$ of yours can't buy you a sense of humor. I would have no problem with your comment other than you calling someone a deadbeat for being late on a bill. Apart from that, your vision of a better connected world using fiber optics or other technology is a positive thing. I'd be interested in knowing your predicted time-line for said revolution in the "coming years." Perhaps you are a bit too optimistic? Change takes time, especially because it's driven by consumers. Until then, I'll take what my cable company has too offer, just like most of the rest of us deadbeats.

  17.2.2009 03:44 #9

• ThePastor

  Yeah, I don't know about cable being antiquated. Around here it's the best connection available at the price, it's EVERYWHERE, and it works.
  DSL is such a joke.
  One could also argue that cable is what fueled the broadband upsurge. Prior to cable everyone had phone modems. It wasn't until people realized real download speeds of cable that people started demanding more.
  I have cable (Cox at Home) and I wouldn't trade it for anything, except maybe Fios, but I would still have to think hard about it.

  17.2.2009 14:34 #10

• jimfitter

  Quote:...I guess all that $$$$ of yours can't buy you a sense of humor. I would have no problem with your comment other than you calling someone a deadbeat for being late on a bill.I guess reading comprehension isn't your strong suit. That person said he/she had their service disconnected for non-payment, and went on to laugh about not having to pay, because of clerical errors. Theft of services is what I see. The act of a deadbeat. I don't find it funny on moral reasons. It reflects bad on the society in which I live. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say; "You wouldn't be laughing, if it were your pocket that was picked."
  
  Quote:Change takes time, especially because it's driven by consumers. Until then, I'll take what my cable company has too offer, just like most of the rest of us deadbeats.
  Quote:Yeah, I don't know about cable being antiquated. Around here it's the best connection available at the price, it's EVERYWHERE, and it works. Neither statement refutes my claim, that cable is outdated, limited, and on it's way out.
  As technology advances,(and it will), cable will no longer be a cost effective means of delivering data. It's too high maintenance, and constrained by it's own design.
  Cable companies have doomed themselves to failure by not investing in newer technologies, or updates to their infrastructure. Instead they've gone the way of others in business, setting short-term profit taking to please Wall Street and their own wallets, as their path to success.

  17.2.2009 18:35 #11

• ThePastor

  let me know when I can get something better for the price. I'll be right on it.

  17.2.2009 19:09 #12

• garmoon

  Cable-I hate Cox that I have- I rarely have any problems with the service I can get as high as 25,000MB download and 2500MB up load for $40 a month. Nothing I've seen is cheaper, faster, and available where I am. Have had fiber optics in neighborhood for at least 8yrs.
  
  Show me something better for the buck and I might investigate. Cable is here to stay here. Especially with HD signals now the broadcast norm and have no long distance range to them.

  17.2.2009 19:45 #13

• codymax

  When I used to install satellite TV/internet, customers would complain about Charter. They would tell me how bad their service or lack there of was. Sometimes the customer would tell me that the response from Charter was "were waiting for Comcast to buy us out"

  17.2.2009 20:07 #14

• zorb43

  Quote:Quote:...I guess all that $$$$ of yours can't buy you a sense of humor. I would have no problem with your comment other than you calling someone a deadbeat for being late on a bill.I guess reading comprehension isn't your strong suit. That person said he/she had their service disconnected for non-payment, and went on to laugh about not having to pay, because of clerical errors. Theft of services is what I see. The act of a deadbeat. I don't find it funny on moral reasons. It reflects bad on the society in which I live. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say; "You wouldn't be laughing, if it were your pocket that was picked."
  
  Quote:Change takes time, especially because it's driven by consumers. Until then, I'll take what my cable company has too offer, just like most of the rest of us deadbeats.
  Quote:Yeah, I don't know about cable being antiquated. Around here it's the best connection available at the price, it's EVERYWHERE, and it works. Neither statement refutes my claim, that cable is outdated, limited, and on it's way out.
  As technology advances,(and it will), cable will no longer be a cost effective means of delivering data. It's too high maintenance, and constrained by it's own design.
  Cable companies have doomed themselves to failure by not investing in newer technologies, or updates to their infrastructure. Instead they've gone the way of others in business, setting short-term profit taking to please Wall Street and their own wallets, as their path to success.Well said. I currently have Charter cable here in Southeast Louisiana. They do offer a 16 MB service ... I have the 10 MB and it does top what the fone company offers .. DSL. They really have improved with respect to service and reliability since rebuilding from Katrina; both of those things were absolutley horrible. I still don't believe that they coulden't have ran fiber as this was going forward.I am not sure what the theoretical top DL speed is but I have read that new cable modem technologys have enabled speeds far above 16 Meg. I have heard that all of the boxes will have to be physically updated hardware wise. Maybe they deemed that to do that was cheaper for their bottem line ? Of course this increase in speed is rolled out very slowly so they can maximize their profits. Their prices have remained stable for quite some time. I guess its like the aphids and the ants. They protect against price hikes but are slowley milking the consumers by withholding technological advancements.

  17.2.2009 21:37 #15

• garmoon

  @zorb 43
  
  where in SE LA are you? I'm in BR.

  18.2.2009 07:59 #16

• zorb43

  Originally posted by garmoon: @zorb 43
  
  where in SE LA are you? I'm in BR. I am in Slidell LA or at least just a couple miles SouthWest of the city limits. I hope Cox takes over and we can get those 25 Meg speeds you have had for 8 years ! Charter has only increased from 5 to 16 Megs a few months ago. The 16 Meg service is a lot more, that is why I am sticking with the 10 MB speed for now. Service has really improved over the last couple of years it used to suck big time ... Lots of outages and Terrible customer service. At least up in BR you don't have to worry about storms nearly as much as we do down here. I just mover here about three months before the storm from South of the lake in Metairie and sold a house I had in Saint Bernard (Chalmette) ... Just in time ! 7 1/2 feet of water, first time it flooded since it was built in 1950 !

  20.2.2009 17:07 #17

• garmoon

  @zorb43
  
  You were fortunate. It hardly rained a drop for Katrina here. I've only had the higher speeds here lately but the fiber optics on the main cable has been here for 8 years. But still have standard cable wire for my connection to it. i really don't know how I'm getting these speeds, but speakeasy confirms it.

  21.2.2009 00:15 #18

• tisshasmith

  Declaring Personal Bankruptcy
  
  Nice post........but Chapter 11 bankruptcy is usually the course of action for businesses. It requires restructuring your debts and business operations to make sure you can repay your debts!!!!!
  

  6.4.2010 05:53 #19

• J964 (unverified)

  Originally posted by ZippyDSM: Oh sht if comiecast buys them up I dunno if thats a good thing... Comcast would be a significantly improvement upon what is now. Our cable goes out more than once a month and Charters answer to this is to charge us 35$ to fix their problems, We had Comcast for over 20 years and never had any problems with outages unless there was a storm in progress and then they would have it back up and running again very quickly. CHARTER SUCKS AND THEIR SERVICE TO CUSTOMERS IS UTTERLY INEXCUSABLE.

  20.12.2010 06:12 #20