- Charter may be open to further acquisitions
- Analysts speculate whether a Charter-Comcast merger would make sense
- Even more forward thinking, one analyst speculates whether Charter could make an acquisition target for T-Mobile or even SpaceX
New Street Research has floated the idea that Charter and Comcast could potentially merge, citing comments from Charter CFO Jessica Fischer at an NSR investor conference.
Currently, Charter is in the final stages of closing on its acquisition of Cox Communications, which is expected in mid-summer.
When NSR analyst Vikash Harlalka asked Charter CFO Jessica Fischer if the cable company would be interested in any further acquisitions, she indicated that the company looks at opportunities at a good price and with growth potential. She didn’t think that the Cox integration would stand in the way of further acquisitions.
In a note to investors, Harlalka wrote, “Our biggest takeaway was that Charter is open to doing more cable M&A and doesn’t need to wait for the Cox merger integration to conclude.”
Harlalka also asked Charter's CEO Chris Winfrey about the prospect on Charter's recent Q1 earnings call. Winfrey said Charter isn’t eyeing anything, currently, other than closing the Cox transaction.
Speculating really big, Harlalka added in his note to investors, “We continue to believe that a Comcast-Charter merger should and can happen. The industrial logic and synergies would be transformative for both companies. Not least among these would be the potential to acquire at least a 50% share of T-Mobile and create the country’s third converged player to stand up to AT&T and Verizon in a facilities-based way.”
What about antitrust concerns?
Separately, NSR policy analyst Blair Levin looked at the chances of a Comcast-Charter merger passing antitrust muster, and he wrote that as a general rule, geographic expansions are allowed. Since Comcast and Charter don’t infringe on each other’s footprints, the deal would qualify as a geographic expansion.
“This is why, for example, admittedly smaller geographic expansion deals, such as Verizon purchasing Frontier, do not create significant antitrust objections,” wrote Levin.
Levin also noted that Comcast and Charter have collaborated on multiple initiatives, and these have not raised antitrust objections. For example, they have collaborated on developing a streaming platform and on cable technology, such as developing new chips and sharing their millions of Wi-Fi hotspots.
“If antitrust authorities regarded Comcast and Charter as competitors, they would have had problems with one or more of these collaborations,” wrote Levin.
Nevertheless, Comcast and Charter are the two largest cable operators in the U.S., and any proposed merger would likely to be opposed by various business sectors and consumer groups.
“More important, from our perspective, is the risk that the Trump Administration would use any such deal review to send a message about its unhappiness with Comcast,” wrote Levin, referring to Trump’s disdain for Comcast’s indirect ownership of MSNBC.
Weighing in on the possibility of a Comcast-Charter merger, Wolfe Research analyst Peter Supino wrote, “The primary risk to the pair is Charter ceasing to be a stock at all by selling itself to T-Mobile, Verizon or dark horse SpaceX. Charter trades for $2,100/location. The telecom industry is racing to extend fiber to locations at $1,200-1,500 apiece before $600+ to connect the new customers that also cost money to get! T-Mobile and Verizon should attempt to acquire Charter for massive value creation opportunities.”
In Supino’s view, the Trump presidency is the time to try for a merger, given less anti-trust scrutiny.
The problem with not competing
For years, Charter, Comcast and Cox have enjoyed limited competition because their broadband footprints don’t overlap.
Charter’s CEO Chris Winfrey talked about this on the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call last week. He said, “Each of the cable companies is a regional competitor. We don't have overlap. And all of us are competing against national and global competitors. That's never been the case more than it is today when you think about fiber over-build, when you think about national telcos with both wireless, mobile, fixed wireless access. And each element of the space that we operate in, it's much more competitive than it was five, or certainly, 10 years ago.”
Longtime cable executive Jeff Finkelstein (formerly with Cox before his retirement) posted about this on LinkedIn today. He noted that the cable industry has distracted itself with upgrades to DOCSIS, while competitors have been laying fiber and deploying fixed wireless in their territories. “While the cable industry fights over DOCSIS 4.0 and its variants, with operators and vendors fighting over deck chairs, the competition is literally stealing the industries’ customers,” wrote Finkelstein.