The all-stock deal was approved by the boards of both companies. It is expected to close by the end of the year, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. The price amounts to $158.82 per share for Time Warner Cable's roughly 285 million outstanding shares and is about 17 percent above that stock's Wednesday closing price of $135.31. It trumps a proposal by Charter Communications Inc. to buy Time Warner Cable for about $132.50 per share, or $38 billion in cash and stock.