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Comcast deal not on agenda for Time Warner shareholders

Time Warner Cable Inc., the nation's second-largest cable-TV company, will hold its annual shareholder meeting Thursday in New York, and the proposed $45.2 billion merger with Comcast Corp. is not part of the agenda.

FILE - In this Feb. 2, 2009 file photo, a Time Warner Cable truck is parked in New York. Comcast has agreed to buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion in stock, or $158.82 per share, in a deal that would combine the top two cable TV companies in the nation, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because it had not been announced formally. An announcement is set for Thursday morning, Feb. 13, 2014, the person said. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 2, 2009 file photo, a Time Warner Cable truck is parked in New York. Comcast has agreed to buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion in stock, or $158.82 per share, in a deal that would combine the top two cable TV companies in the nation, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because it had not been announced formally. An announcement is set for Thursday morning, Feb. 13, 2014, the person said. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)Read more
    by By Bob Fernandez, Inquirer Staff Writer
    Published 

Time Warner Cable Inc., the nation's second-largest cable-TV company, will hold its annual shareholder meeting Thursday in New York, and the proposed $45.2 billion merger with Comcast Corp. is not part of the agenda.

The meeting follows a tumultuous year at Time Warner Cable in which the company lost hundreds of thousands of cable-TV customers and then became a target of an unfriendly takeover by Charter Communications Inc.

Comcast, the nation's largest cable-TV operator, negotiated a friendly all-stock deal to acquire Time Warner Cable that was announced in February.

If the U.S. Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission approve the deal, Time Warner Cable is expected to hold a special shareholder meeting to approve the transaction later this year or early 2015.

Until the deal closes, Time Warner Cable operates as an independent, publicly traded company and has said it would upgrade its network to boost Internet speeds and improve customer service.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index recently rated Time Warner Cable as the nation's most unloved company - rating its Internet service as No. 236 out of 236 companies or brands providing a range of services or goods, and its TV service as No. 235.

Time Warner Cable shareholders will vote on a slate of 13 directors, a measure supported by the company.

Shareholders also will vote on a resolution that would require TWC to disclose information on lobbying expenditures. The lobbying resolution is one of the most popular of the activist shareholder issues this year. A similar resolution was presented at the Comcast shareholder meeting in May, but was defeated.

Time Warner Cable says that shareholders should vote against the lobbying resolution, which has been offered by Walden Asset Management, of Boston.

Time Warner Cable holds its shareholder meetings in regions where it offers cable and Internet service. The meeting will be at 10 a.m. at the New York Institute of Technology, 1871 Broadway, near the company's headquarters.