When John Malone retired from the boards of Lions Gate and Charter Communications last month, the media and telecom industries shuddered: Was the ‘Cable Cowboy’ finally calling it quits? Not quite.

Technology shares led a broad slide in US stocks Tuesday after a day of mostly choppy trading.

Charter Communications, controlled by cable industry pioneer John Malone, has offered to buy Time Warner Cable for $56bn (€52bn), seeking to combine the number two and three US cable operators to compete against market leader Comcast.

Microsoft has signed a deal with Charter Communications, the US's fourth largest cable TV company.