Charter completes purchase of Time Warner Cable, Bright House

LOS ANGELES — Charter Communications has completed its purchase of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, a mammoth merger that sweeps together 25 million customers in 41 states and reorders the landscape for high-speed Internet and pay-TV service. The overall value of the cash and stock deal reached about $71 billion — more than when the transaction was first announced in May 2015 because the value of Time Warner Cable and Bright House shares increased during the past 12 months. Charter now is the nation’s second-largest broadband Internet provider, behind Comcast, and the third-largest pay-TV distributor behind AT&T and Comcast. Charter clinched the deal to buy Time Warner Cable a year ago, after Comcast’s bid for Time Warner Cable ran into a regulatory buzz saw.