UPDATE, 3/21/13, 11:30 p.m. EDT: This article’s final paragraph has been updated to include Wachtell attorneys advising Apollo Management in connection with this transaction.

Liberty Media Corporation, the entertainment conglomerate run by billionaire John Malone, said Tuesday it has agreed to buy a 27.3 percent stake in cable television operator Charter Communications Inc.

Under the terms of the agreement, Englewood, Colorado–based Liberty Media will pay roughly $2.6 billion to three private equity firms that are among Charter’s largest investors: Apollo Management, Crestview Partners, and Oaktree Capital Management. Liberty Media is paying $95.50 for each Charter share it is acquiring in a deal that is expected to close early in this year’s second quarter, pending regulatory approval.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the deal includes the entirety of Apollo’s investment in Charter, a stake valued at $1.7 billion. Apollo, Crestview, Oaktree, and Franklin Resources bought most of Charter’s shares from Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen as part of a reorganization plan that allowed the St. Louis–based company to emerge from bankruptcy in 2009. Saddled with roughly $21 billion in debt, Charter—the country’s fourth-largest cable operator—filed for Chapter 11 protection earlier that year. (Last year, Forbes reported that Allen, who still holds a small Charter stake, was finally starting to make money from the company.)

Malone is no stranger to investing in cable television. Bloomberg reports that Liberty Media also holds a stake of an unspecified size in the U.S.’s second-largest cable company, Time Warner Cable Inc. And Liberty Global Inc.—a related entertainment company also run by Malone—paid $23.3 billion last month to acquire Virgin Media and expand its presence in Europe’s pay-television market.

Liberty Media has turned to Baker Botts as its legal counsel on the Charter purchase. The firm’s team includes New York–based corporate partners Fredrick McGrath, Robert Murray, Renee Wilm, and John Winter. Finance partner Alison Boren and tax partner Tamar Stanley are also advising in Dallas and Washington, D.C., respectively. Associates working on the deal are Katherine Jewell, Brittany Uthoff, Grant Everett, and Kelsey Dow.

Liberty Media’s general counsel, Richard Baer, is leading the company’s in-house team, along with deputy general counsel Craig Troyer.

Baker Botts has advised Liberty Media on a number of past deals, including the company’s $7.9 billion purchase of an ownership stake in QVC in 2003. The firm also worked on Liberty Media’s $1.02 billion takeover bid for Barnes & Noble in 2011, which was eventually abandoned in favor of a $204 million investment in the bookseller.

Kirkland & Ellis is advising frequent client Charter on the transaction. The firm guided the company through the bankruptcy process in 2009 and advised Charter on its $1.63 billion purchase of regional cable provider Optimum West from Cablevision Systems in a deal announced last month.

Kirkland’s New York–based team working on the sale to Liberty Media includes corporate partners Thomas Christopher and David Feirstein, along with capital markets partner Christian Nagler and corporate associate Danielle Quinn. Charter’s general counsel is Richard Dykhouse.

Meanwhile, Crestview has turned to Davis Polk & Wardwell corporate partner Paul Kingsley and associate Samuel Burley, while counsel Ann Becchina is providing employee benefits advice. Oaktree is being advised by a Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison team that includes corporate partners Neil Goldman, Kenneth Schneider, and Lawrence Wee, as well as tax partner Richard Bronstein.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz corporate partner Andrew Nussbaum is leading a team from that firm representing Apollo. Corporate partner Ante Vucic, restructuring and finance partner Joshua Feltman, and tax partner Deborah Paul are also advising, along with associates Sebastian Fain and Gregory Pessin.