Official announcements have confirmed that Charter Communications Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer Neil Smit has stepped down from the position to take up an offer put forward by the larger rival of Charter, Comcast Corp.

Charter, which is one the top-ranked US cable operators, had recently managed to come out of bankruptcy protection in November of 2009.

Mr. Smit's resignation will be effective from February 28, and while the company looks for a replacement, his duties will temporarily be taken care of by Chief Operating Officer Mike Lovett.

Mr. Smit will now go on to be a part of the Comcast management as President of Cable Communications, and he will be reporting directly to COO Stephen Burke.

While Charter is currently the fourth-largest cable operator in the US, Comcast is a bigger rival.

Before joining Charter, Mr. Smith was the President of the American Online Access Business of Time Warner Inc., and was responsible for overseeing Internet access services.