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Comcast to buy Time Warner Cable for $45 billion in all-stock deal that trumps Charter's bid
• LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Comcast Corp. has agreed to buy Time Warner Cable Inc. for $45.2 billion in stock, or $158.82 per share, two people familiar with the matter said late Wednesday.
• The deal will combine the nation's top two cable TV companies and make Comcast, which also owns NBCUniversal, a dominant force in both creating and delivering entertainment to U.S. homes.
• The deal was approved by the boards of both companies and, pending regulatory approval, is expected to close by the end of the year, the people said.
• The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced formally. An announcement is set for Thursday morning, they said.
• The price is about 17 percent above Time Warner Cable shares' Wednesday closing price of $135.31 and trumps a proposal by Charter Communications Inc. to buy Time Warner for about $132.50 per share, or $38 billion in cash and stock.
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Case of Iranian businessman convicted of illegal satellite exports shows nuances of laws
• HOPEWELL, Va. (AP) -- Federal agents intercepted the wealthy Iranian entrepreneur at a U.S. airport, questioned him about his business and charged him with illegal export of American-made satellite equipment to his native country.
• Seyed Amin Ghorashi Sarvestani pleaded guilty soon afterward, but changed circumstances now have encouraged him to challenge his 30-month prison sentence.
• Since his plea, the federal government has approved for export to Iran the very products he was convicted of helping ship, his lawyers say. Then federal prosecutors in New York told a judge after the sentencing hearing that they had mistakenly exaggerated the equipment's capabilities. The judge hasn't moved to change the sentence, though lawyers for both sides are continuing to press their arguments.
• Whatever happens, the case illustrates the complexity of laws in which actions banned one year may become legal the next and where one government priority, controlling exports in the name of national security, can brush up against another -- in this case, promoting Internet freedom for Iranian citizens.
• "I am neither an activist nor politically motivated," Sarvestani, 47, wrote from (Continued on page 33)
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