Comcast Corp. will acquire Time Warner Cable in a stock-for stock transaction worth approximately $45.2 billion, the two companies announced Thursday. Word had leaked out Wednesday night, via Bloomberg and CNBC, that the long-rumored deal had finally come to fruition.

“The combination of Time Warner Cable and Comcast creates an exciting opportunity for our company, for our customers, and for our shareholders,” said Brian L. Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast Corp., in a statement. “In addition to creating a world-class company, this is a compelling financial and strategic transaction for our shareholders.

“This combination creates a company that delivers maximum value for our shareholders, enormous opportunities for our employees and a superior experience for our customers,” said Robert D. Marcus, chairman and CEO of Time Warner Cable, also in a statement.

Time Warner Cable had been up for sale after contentious retransmission consent dealings with CBS last summer led to a month of CBS and Showtime outages for Time Warner Cable customers in New York City, Los Angeles and across the country. That led to more than a half-million subscriber defections, causing the company to plunge in value.

The merger, which is not expected to be completed for nine to 12 months, will add approximiately 11 million subscribers to Comcast. Comcast also will divest three million subscribers in order to stay under the FCC’s MVPD ownership cap of 30% of U.S. households. The new cable company will be led by Comcast Cable President and CEO Neil Smit,

While Comcast had been mentioned as a potential buyer, Charter Communications had been considered the lead suitor. Comcast apparently matched the offer that Time Warner Cable was asking of Charter, according to Reuters.

The deal is expected to face close scrutiny by U.S. regulators, including the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission. Consumer action groups are encouraging regulators to take a close look at the deal, although if past is prologue, it’s likely to pass muster.

“An enlarged Comcast would be the bully in the schoolyard, able to dictate terms to content creators, Internet companies, other communications networks that must interconnect with it, and distributors who must access its content,” said John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C., public interest group that seeks to defend consumer rights, in Variety.

Many others in Washington, including former FCC commissioner-turned-consumer-advocate Michael Copps and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), are already expressing reservations, Variety further reports.

Read more: The New York Times

Brief Take: Comcast-Time Warner Cable will be the largest broadband provider in the U.S. Ramifications of that for programmers and consumers remain to be seen, but both groups are understandably nervous..

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