John Malone has stepped down from his role as director emeritus on the Charter Communications board, citing concerns that his simultaneous presence on Warner Bros. Discovery's board of directors violates the Clayton Act.
“I stepped away from my director emeritus role at Charter due to the uncertainty around Clayton Act inquiries,” Malone said in a statement. “I remain heavily invested in Charter via Liberty Broadband — which maintains its three board seats — and am confident in Charter’s leadership team and strategy for the business.”
Malone had held the director emeritus position since 2018, when he retired from a full-time director role.
Malone's move comes after Steven Miron and Steven Newhouse, two other executives who simultaneously occupied Charter and WBD board seats, came under Justice Department scrutiny for possible violations of the Clayton Antitrust Act. The 1914 law was designed to curtail conflicts of interest arising from board members serving two competing companies at once.
Both Miron and Newhouse resigned from the WBD board earlier this month.
“Charter, through its Spectrum cable service, and WBD, including through its Max streaming subscription services, both provide video distribution services to customers,” the DOJ said in a statement.
The news was originally reported by Cablefax.
