Exclusive: Charter makes new approach to Comcast on Time Warner Cable bid – sources

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Charter Communications Inc reached out to Comcast Corp this week about teaming up to buy Time Warner Cable Inc, after Time Warner Cable rejected its $37.3 billion buyout bid, according to people familiar with the matter.

Charter approached Comcast on Wednesday to discuss carving up the second-largest U.S. cable company’s systems and subscribers, the people said.

Charter, the No. 4 U.S. cable provider, and Comcast, the top U.S. cable provider, are currently in preliminary discussions about how to structure a potential alliance, the people said. One possibility is that Charter buys all of Time Warner Cable and sells off some of its markets and subscribers to Comcast, one of the people said.

The two companies held similar discussions late last year but those talks did not progress at that time.

The people asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak with the media. Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter declined to comment.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim and Liana Baker in New York- Editing by Leslie Adler)