Charter filing for Chapter 11 by April 1

February 12, 2009 Paul Allen's Charter Communications will make a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by April 1, unveiling Thursday an agreement-in-principle with certain of its debt holders on a financial restructuring that will reduce the cable operator's debt by about $8 billion. Officials said the arrangement is not quite a prepackaged Chapter 11 filing, but a hybrid between a prepackaged and a regular filing that should nonetheless allow Charter to move through the bankruptcy process more swiftly. Charter shares tanked after the news as regular shareholders will get wiped out in the bankruptcy process.

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