Charter, Comcast Appoints Michael Willner As CEO Of Spin-off Co.

(RTTNews) - Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA, CMCSK) on Thursday revealed the appointment of cable industry veteran Michael Willner as CEO of the new cable company to be spun off from Comcast.

Willner was a co-founder and CEO of Insight Communications from 1985 till 2012, when he sold the company to Time Warner Cable. Willner currently serves as President and CEO of privately-held Penthera Partners, a software licensing company focused on cloud-to-mobile technology.

The spinoff company is a part of three-part agreement between Charter and Comcast to ensure a smooth approval process for the $45-billion Comcast-Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) merger.

As part of the three-part deal, Charter will acquire about 1.4 million existing subscribers of Time Warner Cable. Charter will also form a holding company that will own about 33 percent stake in the spinoff company. The company will serve about 2.5 million customers. Also, Comcast and Charter will each trade 1.6 million customers. The three separate deals are subject to the completion of the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger.

For Comcast, the divestiture follows through its willingness to reduce its post-merger managed subscriber total to less than 30 percent of total national MVPD subscribers.

The spinoff company will also have a nine-member board of directors, three directors will be appointed by Charter, while Comcast will appoint three of the remaining six members and will select three more from a list provided by Charter. Charter CEO Tom Rutledge, will serve as the non-executive Chairman.

CHTR is currently trading at $136.22, up $0.07 or 0.05%, on the Nasdaq, while CMCSA is trading at $49.64, down $0.19 or 0.38%.