Forced to lick his financial wounds after the collapse of the Comcast-Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) deal with a relatively pedestrian 2014 salary of just $34.6 million, TWC CEO Rob Marcus can once again sleep soundly, knowing that his retirement savings plan is back on sound footing.
According to Bloomberg, Marcus stands to take home as much as $85 million in severance if he's terminated within two years after Charter's (NASDAQ: CHTR) acquisition of his company. Stock awards could yield as much as $57.3 million, the news service reports.
Word of Marcus' potential boon come as Charter expressed guarded optimism that its $56.7 billion agreement to purchase TWC, and separate $10.4 billion pact to buy Bright House Networks, will be met with a regulatory attitude better than what Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) faced when it tried, unsuccessfully, to purchase TWC.
"We're a very different company to Comcast, and this is a very different transaction," Charter CEO Tom Rutledge told investors Tuesday.
Analysts optimistically note that, while the combined Comcast-TWC would have controlled 57 percent of the U.S. Internet market, the so-called "New Charter" will present a threshold of under 30 percent.
Of course, Comcast-TWC was viewed as a slam dunk, if not an easy regulatory layup, when it was first proposed in February 2014.
"By no means is it a slam dunk for approval just because it's smaller than the gargantuan size Comcast would have achieved," said S. Derek Turner, research director for the media policy group Free Press, to the New York Times.
For more:
- read this Bloomberg story
- read this New York Times story
Related links:
TWC's Marcus asks his 'fatigued' staff to get back on the merger 'rollercoaster'
TWC's Marcus pocketed $34.6M in 2014, edges out Comcast's Roberts for cable biz's top salary
Charter makes it official: Will buy TWC for $56.7B, keep its deal to purchase Bright House