AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner • Hacker News Board

Re: AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner

#71

Post by rosser » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 9:39 PM UTC

Gibbon1 wrote: post #69

rosser wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has plenty to do with the broadband market, if you happen to be an AT&T subscriber, and especially if they're your only choice. This, coupled with their no longer being restrained from the kinds of shenanigans that NN barred, positions them to force preferential choices on their subscribers and wring more money out of them for the privilege of accessing competing services. This is only good for people holding T an…

That's one of my complaints when courts pretend to rule in favor of stock holders rights. In practice there is an inherent conflict of interest between management and the stockholders whose interests are diverse and barely represented.

What? The almighty market doesn't solve the Principal-Agent Problem? [0]

Like, say it ain't so, man.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_proble...

Re: AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner

#72

Post by niftich » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 9:43 PM UTC

The acquisition target is 'Time Warner Inc.', primarily a television and film company, whose products and subvisions include HBO and Cinemax, the TV networks CNN, TBS, Turner Classic Movies, TNT, and various joint ventures with US sports leagues, and Warner Bros, which now includes DC Comics/DC Entertainment. Meanwhile, AT&T is largely a telecom and satellite broadcast company, which under its various subsidiaries offers bulk telecom interconnect, and satellite television, and is a wired and wireless ISP.

Therefore, this sounds more like vertical integration of an infrastructure-and-ISP company buying a media company in much the same vein as Comcast acquiring full ownership of NBCUniversal in 2013, or Verizon acquiring AOL -- which in 2001 bought Time Warner, then AOL got spun out in 2009 -- and Yahoo.

Re: AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner

#73

Post by TillE » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 9:43 PM UTC

atmosx wrote: post #52

gzu wrote: post #21

It’s crazy to me how one judge gets to decide the fate of a 100 billion dollar merger. Humans are fallible.

Are you proposing to use AI (or what we call AI nowadays) instead? :-)

I think it would not necessarily be insane to envision a system which hands off non-obvious regulatory cases to the legislature, to amend the law such that this and future cases could be trivially decided.

Re: AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner

#74

Post by myrandomcomment » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 9:44 PM UTC

staunch wrote: post #35

Technology will help the citizenry destroy these evil megacorps. It's just a matter of time and some improvements in technology. The world where ABC/CBS/NBC/NYTimes/Time/etc could control what people think is over. In the near future we will have a much more educated populace. They will flex their power in ways that seem unimaginable now. When the information revolution finally arrives, these megacorps will be the fi…

The average IQ is 100 remember. :)

Most people do not care. They happily give up all privacy to FB and Google. The funny thing is everyone was worried about the world turning into a version of 1984 and it looks like Brave New World and F451 was more on target.

Re: AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner

#75

Post by gm-conspiracy » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 9:46 PM UTC

platinumrad wrote: post #29

jandrese wrote: post #8

Yet more media consolidation. And this one has the inherent conflicts of interest you get when a distributor buys out a producer. And of course the idea of protecting the public interest isn't a thing anymore in DC.

To be fair, the DOJ actually tried to stop this but was overruled by the courts.

Jeff Sessions, servant of the people?

Re: AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner

#76

Post by BigChiefSmokem » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 9:46 PM UTC

JAFTEM wrote: post #19

walru wrote: post #9

>to lead the next generation in innovation. Meanwhile I have 300k internet in Pasadena, CA. That's the fastest they offer. My roommate doesn't care and won't upgrade to Spectrum. Why is it whenever I read the above it means the opposite?

Also have bad internet in LA. I grew up in North Dakota though, and back there my family is getting 1 gigabit internet for $100/mo from Midcontinent. Absolutely bizarre and ridiculous that North Dakota, a state that has far less developed infrastructure than either coast, has better internet than Los Angeles.

I'm in LA and I pay Spectrum $54 a month for 100mb and saw that their gigabit service is $104 a month for new subscribers.

Re: AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner

#77

Post by gm-conspiracy » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 9:47 PM UTC

opencl wrote: post #31

rosser wrote: post #3

I'm so glad the end of Net Neutrality has ushered in an era of unprecedented competition in the broadband market. EDIT: Yes, this acquisition is of the content division of Time Warner, not the ISP, which was previously acquired — by another broadband provider , mooting my general point how, again?

This has nothing to do with the broadband market. Time Warner Cable was spun off from Time Warner in 2009 and subsequently bought up by Spectrum in 2016.

Nobody wants to be "dumb pipes".

Re: AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner

#78

Post by tanderson92 » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 9:49 PM UTC

walru wrote: post #9

>to lead the next generation in innovation. Meanwhile I have 300k internet in Pasadena, CA. That's the fastest they offer. My roommate doesn't care and won't upgrade to Spectrum. Why is it whenever I read the above it means the opposite?

It's especially funny because Caltech students living on or near campus have 1Gbps internet. :-)

Re: AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner

#79

Post by rayiner » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 9:51 PM UTC

JAFTEM wrote: post #19

walru wrote: post #9

>to lead the next generation in innovation. Meanwhile I have 300k internet in Pasadena, CA. That's the fastest they offer. My roommate doesn't care and won't upgrade to Spectrum. Why is it whenever I read the above it means the opposite?

Also have bad internet in LA. I grew up in North Dakota though, and back there my family is getting 1 gigabit internet for $100/mo from Midcontinent. Absolutely bizarre and ridiculous that North Dakota, a state that has far less developed infrastructure than either coast, has better internet than Los Angeles.

Is it? I’ve got two fiber lines into my house in a Maryland county where most people are on septic and well. Unsurprisingly, Big California cities have Big California impediments to broadband deployment.

Re: AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner

#80

Post by forapurpose » Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 9:54 PM UTC

hermitdev wrote: post #59

aurailious wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the judge has to base the decision on a whole bunch of laws. It's not like judges get to decide this on their own.

Except when they do. Activist judges & judicial legislation [0] are not a new thing. [0] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/judicial%20legisl...

'Activist judge' is indeed a term in the English language, but what does it have to do with this case? There are 'drunk airplane pilots', but does that make the pilot of the plane I'm going to board a suspect?