Magi: Lost almost $4000 to date on charter since IPO. Bought about $1000 each at $11 and then at $4 hoping to bring ave loss down. Fool me once, foll me four times? What happens when P. Allen takes it back private? What to do, making my brain hurt, I'll worry about that when I get a stinking job, thanks for the info.
> Perhaps we will soon see some rapid upward movement. Have you been taking advantage of Charter for less than a buck? I missed that but got in for a whole bunch between $1 and $2 so cross your fingers for me.
>
> Charter Communications Stake Taken by Mark Cuban (Update2)
> By Miles Weiss
>
> Washington, Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Technology entrepreneur Mark Cuban acquired a 5.3 percent stake in Charter Communications Inc. as part of a larger investment in cable television stocks that have plummeted.
> Cuban, also known as the oft-penalized owner of the Dallas Mavericks National Basketball Association franchise, reported in a regulatory filing that he holds 15.62 million shares in Charter. The St. Louis-based cable operator is controlled by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, who owns several professional sports franchises of his own.
> Charter shares have declined almost 93 percent this year and
> recently traded for less than a dollar each, ranking the company as the worst performer in the Nasdaq 100 stock index. Other cable companies have declined as well, attracting investors who believe the industry has potential that others aren't recognizing.
> ``Prices throughout the industry are ridiculously low,'' Cuban said in an e-mail to Bloomberg News. ``Whether its Charter, Comcast, Cablevision, Cox or others I have bought, I just think this is too big an opportunity to pass by.''
> Comcast Corp., based in Philadelphia, is the third-largest U.S. cable television company. Cablevision Systems New York Group and Cox Communications Inc. are also major cable operators.
> Cuban is one of several people with knowledge of the cable industry who have invested in Charter as the company's shares have declined.
> Another is Marc Nathanson, a director at Charter who sold his Falcon Communications cable company to Allen in 1999 for about $3.7 billion.
> Marc Nathanson
> Nathanson, a 35-year veteran of the cable industry, bought 370,000 Charter shares for $2.44 to $2.60 each in August, according to regulatory filings. Both he and Cuban said investors have erred in blaming the entire industry for the problems of Adelphia Communications Corp., the cable company that filed for bankruptcy amid government accusations that the company was defrauded of $2.5 billion by its founders.
> ``Wall Street people who follow these things have overreacted,'' Nathanson said in a recent interview. ``The cable business is still a strong and resilient business.''
> Charter has problems of its own, including a federal grand jury investigation into how the company accounts for costs of connecting some subscribers.
> Charter also has been losing subscribers because of customer service problems and competition from satellite-TV rivals, raising questions as to whether it will be able to repay the $17.6 billion of long-term debt on its balance sheet at June 30.
> These problems have not deterred Cuban, whose stake in Charter crossed the 5 percent threshold that requires public disclosure on October 17. In fact, Cuban said he stepped up his investing as other investors lost confidence in the company.
> Increased Buying
> ``When Charter stock and bonds started trading like it was going out of business, I increased my buying significantly,'' Cuban said.
> Cuban's connections to broadcasting date back to 1995, when he co-founded Broadcast.com Inc., which provided live and on- demand audio and video programs over the Internet. He sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo! Inc. in 1999 for about $4 billion.
> The entrepreneur is now chief executive officer of HDNet, described on the company's Web site as the world's only national television network broadcasting all high-definition content. HDNet, located on channel 199 of DIRECTV, a satellite-TV unit of Hughes Electronics Corp., broadcasts games from Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League.
> Cuban says that demand for services such as high-definition
> television and video-on-demand will bolster the cable business.
> ``These companies aren't going away,'' Cuban said. ``They will continue to grow and demand for services will only increase.''
> Charter shares rose 31 cents to $1.25 in Nasdaq Stock Market
> trading.
>
Re: How about Charter College Boy?
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