Charter in deal to buy Bright House for $10.4B

• Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR, up 5.2% premarket) has reached agreement to acquire Bright House Networks for $10.4B.
• The outlines of a deal were there, but it's early -- it was expected that a ruling would come down on Comcast's (CMCSA) merger with Time Warner Cable (TWC) before Charter made a move.
• The structure: a partnership where Charter owns 73.7% and Advance/Newhouse owns 26.3%. Charter will pay $2B in cash.
• There's still several conditions to wrapping the deal, including Charter transactions with Comcast.