Charter follows through with Chapter 11 plan

St. Louis-based cable TV company Charter Communications, which was weighed down by almost $22 billion in debt at the end of 2008, followed through last Friday on its previously announced plan to make a pre-packaged bankruptcy protection filing by April 1. The company is planning to re-emerge with $3 billion in new financing as part of the filing, which doesn't require debtor-in-possession financing.

The Wall Street Journal says Charter claims to be operationally sound, just short of breath under all that debt. It's now getting plenty of competition from from both telcos and online video ventures on the TV front, but Charter also is among the cable TV companies that have aggressively moved toward DOCSIS 3.0 for broadband.

For more:
- The Wall Street Journal has this story

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Charter announced its bankruptcy plan in February
Charter long has been talking about restructuring