Latest news with #CoxEnterprises
CNBC
10-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
34-year-old built a $1.3 billion business after working 100-hour weeks to keep it alive: I got there by 'going through hell'
Jake Loosararian struggled for three years to get his artificial intelligence startup Gecko Robotics off the ground. He considered walking away, when a customer offered him $500,000 to buy the business in 2015. Now, a decade later, the business is worth $1.25 billion — following a $125 million fundraising round led by Cox Enterprises, the company announced on June 12. The new funding round means Gecko's valuation has nearly doubled since December 2023, when it was valued at $633 million in a different fundraising round. Gecko began in 2012, when Loosararian and some of his electrical engineering classmates at Pennsylvania's Grove City College built a 40-pound robot with an ultrasonic scanner to climb and scan a local power plant's walls, hoping to identify costly issues in need of repair, like cracks or corrosion. The robot ended up saving the power plant millions of dollars in productivity and labor costs, Loosararian told CNBC Make It on November 23. Loosararian, Gecko's co-founder and CEO, decided to turn the school project into a full-time business after graduating in 2013 — hoping to build robots that could help inspect critical infrastructure of all kinds. He did it against the advice of his family and professors, he said. "Everyone said, 'Don't f---ing do it,'" said Loosararian, whose company ranks No. 30 on the 2025 CNBC Disruptor 50 spent nearly three years struggling to bootstrap Gecko, sleeping on friends' couches and facing bankruptcy while working 100-hour weeks, he said. Sometimes, his workplace was the "dirty and horrible" insides of power plant boilers, fixing early robot prototypes when they malfunctioned, he added. Loosararian considered giving up and walking away multiple times during that stretch, he said. But he still figured that running his own company was better than working for someone else, and the more time he spent with Gecko's customers, the more he convinced himself that his business was viable, he said. "What helped me get through it was spending time with customers and hearing how important the problem was to solve ... That gave me the encouragement I needed to feel I wasn't just fooling myself," said Loosararian. In 2016, Loosararian's resilience finally paid dividends when Gecko got accepted to Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator, paving the way for the business to land seed funding from the accelerator and its network of investors. Today, Gecko makes robots armed with AI technology that can climb walls, fly and even swim underwater to inspect and collect data on critical infrastructure like power plants, bridges, dams and military equipment. Its clients include the U.S. Navy, power plant operator NAES and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, according to the company. Loosararian's early struggles only solidified his resolve to stick it out as a bootstrapping founder, he said: "Those scars allow you to act with confidence, courage and a will to make [your goals] become reality. That's a very helpful thing. It was only possible through that refinement of going through hell."
Spectator
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Home Office probes Palestine Action over suspected Iran link
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced on Monday afternoon that the UK government had decided to proscribe activist group Palestine Action – and now it transpires that officials are investigating its funding over concerns that there may be an Iran link. As reported by the Times, Palestine Action's donations are being probed amid worries that the Iranian regime is funding the campaign group via proxies given their aims align. How curious… Palestine Action's donations are being probed amid fears that the Iranian regime is funding the campaign group via proxies Palestine Action – which states its purpose is to 'dismantle the apartheid regime in Israel through targeted campaigns against companies that profit from the occupation and genocide of the Palestinian people' – admits on its website that as it is a grassroots movement, its funding may be 'sometimes inconsistent'. Donations can be made via its site, but the group does not publish financial information – although one of its few public donors is known to be James 'Fergie' Chambers, a US communist who is also the heir to the billion-dollar Cox Enterprises empire. NGO monitor, a research organisation that holds activist groups to account, has blasted Palestine Action for not revealing its funding sources, saying this 'reflects a lack of transparency and accountability'. And now the Home Office has waded in, with concerns about exactly where the group is getting the significant sums required for its legal costs. Dear oh dear… Cooper told the Commons on Monday that her decision to proscribe the group was made in parr by considering Palestine Action long history of controversial and damaging stunt. In 2022, seven members of the group broke into the Bristol headquarters of Elbit Systems UK, a subsidiary of the Israel-based arms manufacturer, with sledgehammers. In the same year, the group attacked the Thales defence factory in Glasgow and Instro Precision in Kent. In March last year, a Palestine Action activist slashed a 1914 portrait of Lord Balfour at Trinity College, Cambridge. The following month, four activists were charged with causing some half a million pounds worth of damage at the Teledyne factory in Shipley, which supplies electronics to the defence sector. Earlier this year, Palestine Action sprayed Allianz Insurance's London offices with red paint and graffitied Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland. They don't do things by halves, eh? The Home Secretary will lay a draft proscription order next Monday, and MPs will vote on the motion the following Wednesday. If passed, it is down to the House of Lords to have the final say before the legislation comes into force on 4 July. Stay tuned…
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Charter, Cox Communications merger valued at $34.5B
May 16 (UPI) -- Charter Communications, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the United States, announced a merger Friday with privately held Cox Communications in a multi-billion-dollar deal. Once the merger is completed, the new entity will retain the name of Atlanta-based Cox, a subsidiary of parent company Cox Enterprises, a private firm founded in 1898 that also has dealings in the automotive industry. Cox acquired its first cable franchise in 1962. The deal gives Cox Communications a value of approximately $34.5 billion. Charter Communications' stock climbed sharply on the Nasdaq Composite at market open Friday before retreating somewhat. The company's shares were up $7.03 or 1.68% at 10:42 a.m. EDT. Under the terms of the deal, Connecticut-based Charter is acquiring all of Cox's commercial fiber and managed IT and cloud businesses. Cox will also get $4 billion worth of cash and approximately $17.9 billion worth of combined shares, giving the parent company an approximately 23% ownership stake in the new venture. The new company will remain headquartered in Stamford, Conn., and also assume an existing $12 billion worth of Cox Communications' debt. Prior to the deal, Charter was the largest cable operator in the United States, reaching over 32 million subscribers in 41 states. It was also the fifth-largest provider of residential phone lines. Charter's Spectrum brand will survive the merger and will "become the consumer-facing brand within the communities Cox serves." In 2017, Charter announced a partnership with Comcast Communications to share information about wireless services, a year after its $78.7 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable. "Cox and Charter have been innovators in connectivity and entertainment services -- with decades of work and hundreds of billions of dollars invested to build, upgrade, and expand our complementary regional networks to provide high-quality internet, video, voice and mobile services," Charter President and CEO Chris Winfrey said in a jointly-issued statement. "This combination will augment our ability to innovate and provide high-quality, competitively priced products, delivered with outstanding customer service, to millions of homes and businesses. "We will continue to deliver high-value products that save American families money, and we'll onshore jobs from overseas to create new, good-paying careers for U.S. employees that come with great benefits, career training and advancement, and retirement and ownership opportunities." Winfrey will retain both executive titles upon completion of the deal. "Our family has always believed that investing for the long-term and staying committed to the best interests of our customers, employees and communities is the best recipe for success," Cox Enterprises Chairman and CEO Alex Taylor said in the companies' statement. "In Charter, we've found the right partner at the right time and in the right position to take this commitment to a higher level than ever before, delivering an incredible outcome for our customers, employees, suppliers and the local communities we serve."
Miami Herald
17-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Cox Communications and Charter to combine in major cable deal
Cox Communications plans to merge with Charter Communications in a deal that, if approved by regulators, will combine two of the nation's largest cable companies. Cox Communications, based in Sandy Springs, Georgia, and owned by Cox Enterprises, is the third-largest cable operator in the nation. Charter, based in Stamford, Connecticut, is the second-largest. The combined company, to be called Cox Communications within a year of the closing of the deal, will be publicly traded and based in Connecticut. But it will retain significant operations at the Cox Enterprises campus in Sandy Springs. The complex transaction, which will require shareholder and regulatory approval and could take a year or more to close, values Cox Communications at about $34.5 billion, the companies said. The combined company would surpass Comcast in terms of cable customers. It will also offer its suite of consumer and business products under Charter's Spectrum brand. Those offerings include fiber internet, mobile and wired telephone service and streaming entertainment. Cox Enterprises will become the combined company's largest shareholder, controlling nearly a quarter of the company. 'Our family has always believed that investing for the long-term and staying committed to the best interests of our customers, employees and communities is the best recipe for success,' Alex Taylor, chairman and CEO of Cox Enterprises, said in a news release. 'In Charter, we've found the right partner at the right time and in the right position to take this commitment to a higher level than ever before, delivering an incredible outcome for our customers, employees, suppliers and the local communities we serve.' Taylor will join the board of the new company and become its chairman, and he will remain chairman and chief executive of Cox Enterprises. In an interview, Taylor said the new Cox Communications will retain a culture centered on community, customers and employees. He also said he sees the new Cox Communications being an entity that will continue to invest in Atlanta. The combined company will have more than 100,000 employees. Its network will span 46 states, covering nearly 70 million homes and businesses - and they intend to grow, Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said during a conference call with analysts and investors. The companies don't have any 'real overlapping footprint,' he said. The companies said together they will be bigger and better able to compete in an evolving marketplace that has seen consumers access television, other forms of video entertainment and the internet in different ways, increasingly wirelessly and on the go. Streaming services have changed the way many consumers watch video and TV, and wireless and satellite companies have expanded into internet service. Cable companies have responded by launching cellular networks. 'Cox and Charter have been innovators in connectivity and entertainment services - with decades of work and hundreds of billions of dollars invested to build, upgrade, and expand our complementary regional networks to provide high-quality internet, video, voice and mobile services,' Winfrey said in the release. Addressing the need for regulatory approval, Winfrey, who will be president and CEO of the combined company, told investors and analysts the deal is 'good' from a competition standpoint. He said he hopes approval could come by mid-next year but acknowledged it's 'hard to say.' The corporate marriage, he said, 'allows us to actually invest more into the footprint, to have better products, have better service, invest more in (artificial intelligence) and invest more in U.S.-based jobs.' 'Atlanta success story' Cox Enterprises is one of the nation's largest privately held companies. Cox Enterprises was founded in 1898 by former Ohio Gov. James M. Cox when he purchased the Dayton Daily News. Cox later purchased The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution newspapers, building a media empire that would expand into radio and television. The company acquired its first cable franchise in 1962, making the Cox family the longest continuous operator in the sector and the largest privately held operator. In the 1960s, Cox Communications went public. But Cox Enterprises took back control and made it a privately held subsidiary in 1985. Following an acquisition, the cable company was public again during the 1990s and early 2000s until the family bought out shareholders. Today, Cox Communications' cable territory spans 19 states, and it operates broadband services in more than 30 states. In an interview, Taylor said with what was then about a $660,000 investment, Cox started its cable business, one that for many years was dwarfed by its newspaper business in terms of revenue and profit. Even by the 1980s, newspapers remained Cox Enterprises' largest profit center. Taylor, the great-grandson of the company's founder, has a shareholder letter from the 1960s that contains a photograph of family members learning about the power of cable and being told one day it would carry not only television but information, such as how to improve one's golf game, the ability to shop and for families to obtain the contents of a newspaper - essentially what would become the modern internet. Taylor credited his family for having the foresight to invest in technology that would connect the world and what would become the family-owned company's largest division. Taylor's uncle, predecessor and now Cox Enterprises chairman emeritus, Jim Kennedy, was the architect of much of that success. 'In the last 20 to 30 years, under the leadership of Jim Kennedy, it's grown into this amazing Atlanta success story,' Taylor said. Cox Enterprises is also a major player in the automotive sector, with holdings that include AutoTrader and Kelley Blue Book. In recent years, Cox Enterprises has diversified its holdings, selling its majority stakes in its television and radio stations and making acquisitions in clean energy, electric vehicles and the EV supply chain, health technology, sustainable agriculture and media. The company, for instance, is now the nation's largest operator of advanced greenhouses and a powerhouse in EV battery maintenance and recycling. Cox Enterprises will continue to own its Cox Automotive division, media holdings, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Axios, and its emerging ventures in technology, agriculture and other sectors, the company said. Charter was founded in 1993 and, over the years, expanded through acquisitions. The company, in 2016, acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks to become the second-largest cable provider in the U.S. In 2024, Charter reported more than $55 billion in revenue and more than $5 billion in profit. The company reported 12.7 million video customers at the end of March and about 30 million internet subscribers. Charter also operates Spectrum News stations in the markets it serves and will expand the local news service to Cox Communications markets. In 2024, Cox Communications brought in about $13.1 billion in revenue, Charter's CFO, Jessica Fischer, told investors. Cox Enterprises will receive $4 billion in cash as part of the transaction, $6 billion in convertible preferred units that are exchangeable for Charter common stock and nearly $12 billion in common units that are exchangeable for Charter common stock. The combined company will assume $12 billion in outstanding Cox Communications debt. The Cox-Charter deal comes as Charter recently acquired Liberty Broadband in an all-stock transaction, which will result in Liberty shareholders retaining stakes in the future Cox Communications. In addition to appointing Taylor as chairman of the combined cable business, Cox Enterprises will have two other seats on the 13-seat board. Charter said the combined company will likely produce $500 million in cost savings and other synergies within three years of the deal closing, 'stemming from typical procurement and overhead savings.' In announcing the deal to its employees, Cox officials said it is too soon to know potential impacts on individual workers. In striking a deal with Charter, Taylor said it was important to find a partner willing to continue Cox's commitments to philanthropy and community service in all markets it serves, including Atlanta. As part of the deal, Charter will create a new Cox Communications foundation, endowing it with $50 million. It will also establish an employee relief fund to help workers of the new company who might encounter hardships such as natural disasters, similar to one created two decades ago at Cox Enterprises. 'We want the new Cox Communications, like the current Cox Communications, to be one that's very committed to employees and the community,' Taylor said. The deal at a glance Key points about the combination of Cox Communications and Charter Communications: Headquarters: Will be in Stamford, Connecticut, with major operations in Sandy Springs. $34.5 billion: The value of Cox Communications in the deal, including assumption of debt. $55.1 billion: Charter's annual revenue in 2024. $13.1 billion: Cox cable's annual revenue in 2024. More than 100,000: Employees of the combined companies. 46: The number of states served by the combined company. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Washington Post
16-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
US cable giants Charter and Cox pursue $34.5 billion merger
Charter Communications and Cox Communications will pursue a $34.5 billion merger, a tie-up that would combine two of the largest cable companies in the U.S. Charter said Friday that it will acquire Cox Communications' commercial fiber and managed IT and cloud businesses. Cox Enterprises will contribute Cox Communications' residential cable business to Charter Holdings, an existing subsidiary partnership of Charter.
