Charter Communications Inc., whose bid to take over Time Warner Cable Inc. was thwarted earlier this month, swung to a fourth-quarter profit, helped by its acquisition of Cablevision System Corp.'s western cable business.

The No. 4 U.S. cable company, backed by billionaire John Malone, reported net income of $39 million, or 35 cents per share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $40 million, or 41 cents per share, a year earlier.

The company acquired Bresnan Broadband Holdings for $1.6 billion last February, adding 670,000 homes and about 375,000 residential and business customers.

Charter was outmaneuvered in its bid to follow that acquisition by buying Time Warner Cable for $37.3 billion when Comcast Corp. outbid it with a $45.2 billion offer.

In its earnings statement on Friday, Charter gave no indication of its next move in its pursuit of Time Warner Cable.

Charter shares fell 4.4 percent to $126 in early trading.

The company said its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose about 3 percent to $764 million.

Quarterly revenue rose 12.3 percent to $2.15 billion.

Analysts had expected a profit of 24 cents per share on revenue of $2.16 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Video revenue, which accounts for about half of total revenue, rose 12.8 percent. Internet revenue, which accounts for more than a quarter of total revenue, rose 22.4 percent.

Revenue from sales to small- and medium-size businesses and to carrier customers rose 28.8 percent.

The company added 93,000 residential Internet customers compared to 59,000 customers a year ago.

Charter's residential customers grew by 63,000 in the quarter, up from 24,000 in the same period a year ago.

Revenue per customer relationship rose 2 percent to $107.97.

Charter said it expects to boost spending by 19 percent to $2.2 billion in 2014 as it digitalizes set-top boxes and invests in its commercial business.