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Charter Communications is near a deal to buy Time Warner Cable for about $55 billion, people with direct knowledge of the talks said on Monday, a takeover that would create a new powerhouse in the rapidly consolidating American cable industry.
查特通信公司(Charter Communications)以550亿美元左右的价格收购时代华纳有线(Time Warner Cable)的交易已接近达成，对谈判有直接了解的人士周一表示。此番收购将让正在经历快速整合的美国有线电视行业新增一家强大企业。
Under the proposed terms of the deal, Charter will pay about $195 a share in cash and stock. That is roughly 14 percent higher than Time Warner Cable’s closing stock price on Friday — and 47 percent higher than Charter’s original bid for its rival from early last year.
按照拟议的交易条件，查特公司将选择现金加股票的支付方式，每股收购价约为195美元。该价格比时代华纳有线周五的收盘价高14%，比查特去年初最早的出价高47%。
A deal could be announced as soon as Tuesday, though these people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about private negotiations, cautioned that talks were continuing and might still fall apart.
双方最快可能在周二公布达成交易的消息，但上述人士并未获得公开谈论秘密谈判的授权，他们提醒说，谈判还在继续，并且仍有可能破裂。
The potential acquisition of Time Warner Cable completes a lengthy quest by Charter and its main backer, the billionaire John C. Malone, to break into the top tier of the American broadband industry.
查特公司及其大股东亿万富豪约翰·J·马龙(John Malone)长期以来一直寻求跻身美国宽带行业的顶级阵营，收购时代华纳有线将让他们得偿所愿。
If completed, the transaction would be the latest in a series of mergers remaking the market for broadband Internet and cable television in the United States. Just last week, the European telecommunications company Altice agreed to buy Suddenlink for about $9 billion.
美国宽带互联网和有线电视市场上最近涌现出一系列重塑格局的并购案，这项交易如果能够达成，便会成为其中最新的一桩。
And Charter is also nearing an agreement to acquire another cable operator, Bright House Networks, in a transaction that could also be announced soon.
此外，查特公司收购另一家有线电视运营商Bright House Networks的交易也已接近达成，达成交易的消息同样可能很快获得公布。
Last year, Mr. Malone tried to penetrate the American broadband industry, but Charter was foiled by its larger rival, Comcast, which bid $45 billion for Time Warner Cable. Comcast, the country’s biggest cable operator, ultimately failed in its effort, with federal antitrust regulators believing that the merger would have been untenable.
去年，马龙曾试图进入美国宽带行业，但查特公司在对时代华纳有线的竞价中败给了规模比它大的竞争对手康卡斯特(Comcast)，后者的出价是450亿美元。作为美国最大的有线电视运营商，康卡斯特的努力最终功亏一篑，因为联邦反垄断监管机构认为这项并购案不合规。
Government regulators are also expected to closely scrutinize a combination of Charter and Time Warner Cable, according to analysts, though as a smaller transaction it may face less opposition.
分析人士称，政府监管部门也会对查特公司和时代华纳有线的合并进行严格的审查，尽管规模较小的交易面临的阻力可能少一些。
Since the collapse of the Comcast agreement, Charter has worked to win over its onetime reluctant target, focusing on a friendly deal and acknowledging that it would have to pay a much higher price tag.
康卡斯特的收购计划泡汤后，为了抱得美人归，查特公司一直在跟一度将它拒之门外的时代华纳有线接触，想要进行友善收购，并且接受了不得不开出高得多的价码的事实。
Yet the company may still face competition for Time Warner Cable in the form of Altice, which has ambitions to extend its telecom empire across the Atlantic, beginning with the acquisition of Suddenlink.
不过，查特公司可能还要跟Altice竞购时代华纳有线。Altice想要以收购Suddenlink为开端，把自己的电信帝国拓展到大西洋这一边。
News of the proposed terms of a Charter deal for Time Warner Cable were reported earlier by Bloomberg News.
彭博新闻社(Bloomberg News)早些时候已就拟议中的查特公司收购时代华纳有线的交易条款进行过报道。
