Charter on borrowed time?

摘要

For months, cable and Wall Street executives have figured that Paul Allen would bail out Charter Communications by putting more of his billions of dollars to work and keep it from following the lead of Adelphia Communications. Now, however, they're increasingly worried that Allen is instead coping with Charter's huge debt the old-fashioned way: by taking the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It's not just Charter's deteriorating operations (or the grand jury investigation into its financial reports or the "paid leave" of COO David Barford). What's striking immediate anxiety is Charter's earnings disclosure that it is unexpectedly drawing down its credit lines. The company disclosed that it borrowed $500 million during the third quarter.