NEW YORK, June 28 (Reuters) - Adelphia Communications Corp. (ADELQ.PK:) said on Wednesday that the judge in its bankruptcy proceedings has cleared the sale of its interest in two joint-venture businesses with Comcast Corp. (CMCSA.O:).
The buyout by Comcast is necessary so it and Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N) can complete their acquisition of the vast majority of Adelphia's assets in a $17.6 billion deal, which got the go-ahead from the same judge on Tuesday.
The two Adelphia/Comcast joint ventures, Century-TCI California Communications and Parnassos Communications, were created before Adelphia went into bankruptcy in 2002.
They operate cable systems in the Los Angeles and Buffalo, New York/Ohio areas, respectively, and jointly have more than 1 million cable subscribers.
While Comcast will buy out the share of the joint ventures, a prior transaction agreement between Comcast and Time Warner will see the cable systems of the two ventures handed over to Time Warner Cable when Adelphia's systems are shared out on completion of the overall transaction.
The sale of the fifth-largest U.S. cable company, with 5 million subscribers, still has one last hurdle with regulators at the Federal Communications Commission. A decision is expected by mid-July.
Adelphia Chief Executive Bill Schleyer said in a statement the Tuesday and Wednesday's rulings represent "major milestones on the way toward the expected July 31 close of our sale."
I don't believe they will lose their shares or their money. The shares will be converted to comcast shares. What the exchange rate or conversion will be I have no idea.