(Telecompaper) Charter Communications is close to winning the bidding for Time Warner Cable with an offer of USD 55 billion, the Financial Times reports. People familiar with the matter said the two companies were in discussions over the holiday weekend in the US. One person informed on the talks said that Charter was prepared to pay a large premium to secure Time Warner Cable. The company is expected to offer USD 195 per share for TWC in a combination of cash and shares, giving the company an enterprise value of USD 78 billion, including USD 22 billion in debt. As part of the TWC deal, Charter will complete its proposed takeover of Bright House Networks and merge the three groups into a single entity that will have a total of 23 million customers. This would make it the second-largest cable operator in the US, just behind Comcast with 27 million customers. Charter's offer for TWC is 23 percent higher than what Comcast bid last year for the company.