Charter Communications has signed up Christianna Lewis Barnhart as vice president of regulatory affairs as the US cableco engages with regulators to get its multi-faceted deal with Comcast over the line.
Barnhart’s most recent role was in the…
Charter Communications has signed up Christianna Lewis Barnhart as vice president of regulatory affairs as the US cableco engages with regulators to get its multi-faceted deal with Comcast over the line.
Barnhart’s most recent role was in the telecommunications access policy division at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Before working at the telecoms regulator she was legislative counsel to Bernstein Strategy Group and an associate at DC-based law firm Finnegan.
In a statement Charter said she would work alongside the government affairs team to oversee its regulatory strategy and has started work today.
Alex Hoehn-Saric, Comcast’s senior vice president of government affairs, commented: “Christianna is an ideal choice to advance Charter’s regulatory policies and will immediately play a significant role in managing the company’s interaction with agency officials and monitoring regulatory proceedings.”
Charter has become part of the discussion around Comcast and Time Warner Cable’s (TWC) US$40bn-plus merger. It has agreed to buy subscribers being divested by the two giants and contribute users to a new operator, SpinCo, set to be hived-off from Comcast.
Under the plan Charter will acquire 1.4 million TWC customers for an undisclosed cash sum once the merger with Comcast has closed, taking Charter’s subscriber base to 5.7 million and making it America’s second-largest cableco.
Comcast plans to divest a further 2.5 million subscribers by transferring them to a new independent and publicly-traded company, dubbed SpinCo. It will be 67%-owned by Comcast and TWC shareholders.
The remaining 33% will be held by New Charter – a new holding company that will own 100% of Charter and hold its stake in SpinCo. New Charter will acquire its 33% by issuing new shares to Comcast and TWC shareholders.
All of the transactions require the approval of the FCC and antitrust authority the Department of Justice.
