Charter Communications' next move

Charter Communications, in which Microsoft progenitor Paul Allen holds almost a 52 percent stake, said in a Securities and Exchange filing it it's considering a sale or privatization. The company is the third-largest, publicly traded cable TV firm, with around 5.7 million customers, but its markets tend to be outside the big cities. It's based in St. Louis, and beyond that, its busiest states look to be Michigan, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Tennessee.

We don't know how that matches up with possible acquirers, and industry analysts seem right now to think that Charter's debt load makes both a sale and privatization difficult. Could Charter sell parts of its operation to a major independent telco that wants to expand its presence and get into the video and bundled services businesses? Don't know if that makes sense, but it's an idea.

For more:
- Light Reading's Cable Digital News follows up on Charter's SEC filing.