Altice joins talks to buy Charter Communications

Charter Communications, which just a year ago swallowed Time Warner Cable in a $60 billion deal, is now being chased by a slew of൩ 🧸potential bidders.

Altice, the European-head♕quartered cable operator that bought Cablevision in 2016, is the latest to join the chase for Charter, sources confirmed on Wednesday.

Altice is in the ♋“early stages,” of conversations to acquire Charter, those sources said — although🌸 it has not made any official moves.

In recent weeks, Sprint owner SoftBank said it was eyeing a possible deal for Charter, while there were rumors that Verizon was also on the scent.

Verizon has said such a deal would be logical b💦ut did not sp🐬ecifically say it was moving on that logic.

A three⭕-way bidding war would be an ideal scenario for John Malone, who controls 🙈Liberty Media, Charter’s biggest shareholder.

Few t༒hin🐻k any deals will happen, however, largely because Malone believes Charter’s best bet for growth is to go it alone.

Indeed, Charter Chief Executive Tom Rutledge may want to wait until his options vest in A♌pril 2019 before looking for an exit.

Rutledge will be in the money if he can get the share price to $564.04, according t♛o his employment contract, which has the pricing target locked into his options.

Charter shares closed Wednesday at $4♒00.90, up 2.9 percent. This time last year it was trading at $252.63.

“None of the rumored acquirers — Verizon, SoftBank or Altice — has t꧑he balance sheet to mount a credible bid that’s more attractive to Malone than his own go-it-alone strategy,” telecom analyst Craig Moffett, of MoffettNathanson, 🌠told The Post.

Reps at 🦹Charter and Altice had no comment on the talks between the two companies, which were first reported by CNBC.