In Debt Crisis, Charter Communications (CHTR) Is Toast

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published

AngrybearCharter Communications (CHTR) is still one of the largest cable companies in the US in a period where cable should be doing fairly well, Charter’s common stock is worthless at this point. It may trade at $.77 but that is a cruel joke for anyone holding the shares.

Charter cannot take advantage of the increasing markets in voice-over-IP and video-on-demand because its debt service is so remarkably high. Charter has almost $21 billion in long-term debt and will be lucky to have $750 million in operating income this year.  Some of Charter’s bonds may go into default or get very close after the next quarter’s results. At that point, the shares, which should be at zero, will actually trade there.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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