Charter Communications

This was an interesting, if not puzzling article. The debt-swap Charter proposed was quite complicated and difficult to decipher, and it was surprising to me that such a "successful" company has such a huge amount of debt, it seems like it is too much for the company, and I wonder where it all came from. For a company that operates as a monopoly in many of its service areas, it is also puzzling to see that they are so deeply in debt. Is this due to mismanagement, expansion, service upgrades, or something else? Since some of the principals of the company were under investigation, it makes me wonder if there were some problems or mismanagement by them, and the restating of the years' financial reports was also fishy to me. It seems like there is simply something wrong with Charter, and that if it can't be a profitable organization, there must be something wrong.

I was also surprised Paul Allen was involved with the company; I did not know he was part of Charter. I have dealt with Charter for business and home use, and I have to say that their customer service leaves something to be desired, and I wonder if that is part of it. I have a friend who was trying to set up service to all their local libraries, and he simply could not get a local or national rep to call him back at all. They seem to be disinterested in their customers, and that leads to customer dissatisfaction. Many people I know have given up their Charter accounts and gotten satellite because it offers more programming for less money. That doesn't have much to do with the article, but it does say something about the company's success. I also don't like how they get contracts to operate in an area, and no other cable company can operate there. That cuts out competition and makes them less likely to be competitive in pricing or customer service.

Maybe they are too bloated with employees and with their own ways of operating. Perhaps if they streamlined, and became more interested in their customers, they could gain more revenue and reduce some of their debt.

References

Grant, Peter. "Charter Communications' Recovery Faces Tricky Hurdle." Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition), 5 August 2003, Retrieved from ProQuest.