Cable giant Charter snubbed a buyout bid from Verizon

Verizon boss Lo𝄹well McAdam, his company facing slowing sales of mobile phones, made a proposal to acquire cable TV gian𝐆t Charter Communications in recent months, three sources told The Post.

The offer — valued at between $350 and $400 a share, and well over $100 billion, according to two of the sources familiar with the move — was rejected by Charter because it was too low — and because Charter and its largest shareholder, Liberty Media, weren’t ready to sell.

Verizon, whose archrival AT&T has moved to expand beyond the wireless world by buying DirecTV and Time Warner, also recently expressed int😼erest in another Liberty Media property, Sirius XM Holdings, sources said.

Verꦡizon’s interest in SiriusXM didn’t get as far as a bid, the🌱 sources said.

Also standing💧 in the way of Liberty Media agreeing to a deal for any of its units is the tax implications, which would be unpalatable to its billionaire c😼hairman John Malone, sources said.

Malone is famous for avoiding taxe♛s in b𒉰ig transactions.

In addition, Malone wants to give Stamford, Conn.-based Charter some time to complete the integration of its acquisition of Time Warner Cable, sources said.

Charter’s stock has been on a tear since Liberty took a stake in the firm i🎐n March 2013 and drafted former Cablevision chief operating officer Tom Rutledge as the boss. The shares have soared roughly 262 percent through Wednesday’s close at $345.55, up 2 percent on the day.

Verizon, whose interest in𒁏 acquiring a cab𒊎le giant like Charter or Comcast was reported by The Post in January, is scrambling꧒ to grow its scale in a rapidly consolidating sector.

As growth at the wireless giant’s phone business stalls, it has been looking to advance its onl🎃ine advertising business by focusing on phone-obsessed millennials.

Verizon will close on its acquisition of Yahoo next month and is planning to merge its operations with AOL under Tim Armstrong. Still, CEO McAdam needs something more transformative now that he’s facing off against rival AT&T and its proposed $85 billion get-together with Time Warne🧔r.

Verizon is eyeing a big cable acquisition to help it 🔴launch its high-speed 5G wireless plans, which require the kind of fiber-optic networks operated by cable.

Meanwhile, an agreement Verizon cut years ago to lease wireless spectrum to the cable industry for mobile phone service♍s may soon come back to haunt it. Earlier this month, Charter and Comcast signed a deal to work together to launch their own wireless phone plans.

Some sources also spe🐓culate that the odd coupling of archrivals Charter and Comcast is meant to prod Verizon into a high-priced cable acquisition that would boost cable stocks as well ꦕas create a viable competitor to AT&T and Time Warner.

Back in Dec⛎ember, McAdam said a get-together with Charter made “industrial sense.”

Verizon’s name crops up frequently in conjunction with properties for sale and some suggest 🦹it also would be a good fit🌌 with online radio giant Pandora.

Verizon shares added 1 percent Wedne🥀sday to close at $46.64. Verizon declined co🐷mment.

Additional reporting by Richard Morgan