Charter Revenue Rises

Charter Communications Inc. on Tuesday reported that its revenue rose slightly more than expected because of higher Internet and commercial revenues, ahead of its merger with Time Warner Cable Inc.

In May, Charter agreed to merge with Time Warner Cable in a $55 billion cash-and-stock deal, giving cable mogul John Malone the prize he has been chasing for two years.

The acquisition by Charter, which is backed by Mr. Malone's Liberty Broadband Corp., would vault the cable operator into the ranks of the biggest U.S. broadband and pay-television companies.

The deal came only a month after Time Warner Cable went back on the block after Comcast terminated the companies' planned $45.2 billion merger in the face of serious pushback from Washington regulators. A Charter-TWC deal could be in for a stringent review in Washington as well, some analysts have said.

In the most recent quarter, video revenues totaled $1.1 billion, up 3.4% from the year before. Internet revenues grew 16.5% to $743 million, due mostly to 393,000 new Internet customers over the past year, as well as more promotion and higher bundling.

Commercial revenues rose 14% to $278 million, driven by higher sales to small and medium-size business customers and to carrier customers.

However, voice revenues fell 7.3% to $135 million, due to value-based pricing and revenue allocation from higher bundling.

Overall, Charter posted a loss of $122 million, or $1.09 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $45 million, or 42 cents a share.

Revenues increased to $2.43 billion from $2.26 billion.

The quarter includes a $128 million loss on debt extinguishment, a $26 million charge related to the Comcast transaction and $19 million of other charges. The increase in net loss was mostly due to these extra charges.

Analysts had expected earnings of 27 cents on revenue of $2.42 billion.

Charter expects capital expenditure of $1.7 billion in 2015.

Shares have increased about 12% this year through Monday's close.

Write to Angela Chen at [e-mail]

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