With federal regulators having already approved the proposed merger with Cox Communications, Charter CEO Chris Winfrey on Wednesday pointed to a key remaining obstacle in his path.
“No secret, we’re working through California as the big state that remains open,” Winfrey told the Morgan Stanley Investors Conference on Wednesday after the Department of Justice and the FCC have already signed off on the proposed Cox transaction.
“We hope to have a productive conversation with them and those around the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) to accelerate the closing, really, for the benefit of consumers and for the employees as well,” he added.
In a Feb. 17 filing to the CPUC, Charter asked the California regulatory agency to change its “lengthy proceeding schedule” so the cable and internet giant could meet a Sept. 15, 2026 deadline under federal law for big mergers to complete all antitrust reviews before closing a deal. Failure to meet that deadline could compel Charter to have to resubmit a new federal filing for an antitrust review.
In May 2025, Charter unveiled a $34.5 billion deal with Cox Communications to combine the businesses and create a cable TV giant with greater scale in broadband Internet connectivity and video to take on tech giants in the video and advertising spaces. The transaction is expected to be completed in mid-2026 as Charter works to get regulatory approvals.
During the Morgan Stanley conference appearance, Winfrey talked up the proposed acquisition that would see the combined entity take the Cox name and use the Spectrum brand name for the consumer market.
“This is a really great combination. They have complementary assets and capabilities to us, and vice versa. So the Cox transaction is a bit of an unforeseen synergy, not just from the scale of having a larger B2B business, but they have things like hospitality managed services that we don’t have in our enterprise footprint,” Winfrey said.
