Malone quits Charter board on Clayton Act concerns

John Malone has resigned from the board of Charter Communications on concerns that his presence there could be in contravention of the US Clayton Antitrust Act.

Malone had been serving as director emeritus on the board of the cable giant, having served on the board since 2008. He retired as a full time director in 2018, taking on the emeritus role.

However concerns that his simultaneous presence on the board of Warner Bros. Discovery could violate section 8 of the Clayton Act led him to take the decision to quit. Malone said that he remained committed to investing in Charter through Liberty Broadband, which retains three seats on the cable operator’s board.

Malone’s move came after two independent directors, Steven A. Miron and Steven O. Newhouse, resigned from the WBD board over concerns that their presence there violated the rules.

Miron and Newhouse resigned after the US Department of Justice informed them that it was investigating whether their service on the board violated Section 8 of the Clayton Act.

Miron and Newhouse had also served on the Charter board, the the DoJ said that the Clayton Act “ prohibits the same person or company from serving simultaneously on the boards of competitors, subject to limited exceptions”.

According to the DoJ, Charter and WBD can be seen as competitors because Charter, through its Spectrum cable service, and WBD, including through its Max streaming subscription services, both provide video distribution services to customers.