How could this not be considered a monopoly over the majority of the US?
timewarner by its own is a monopoly. i dont think anything will change. I already pay 55 bucks for crappy 15 up 1 down speed.
Do you mean 15 down 1 up?
Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
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Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#52Is this a PR move? Do they like paying lawyers? Leverage against the FTC? I mean, this is never going to happen.... right?
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#53Who benefits from large corporate mergers like this? What does an all stock deal mean at that kind of magnitude? It certainly feels like little else than a handshake deal to create a monopoly.
Who benefits from large corporate mergers like this?
At first, the deal makers: executives, bankers, lawyers, auditors, consultants and assorted advisors.
Down the road... nobody.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#54As a TWC customer I've been long certain based on conversations with others that I have the second worst cable company in the country. So my reaction to this announcement is approximately "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK."
I can confirm that you do. Nothing in your life has prepared you for Comcast.
We had Comcast in Cali, in Texas TW was a breath of fresh air, about 3 years ago all these weird fees kept showing up. A year ago we were fed up and dropped all but Internet, went digital TV OTA (over the air) plus Roku and Netflix (my brother clued me in that Netflix actually had streaming now). Roku has some interesting channels we never got on any cable.
Now we could be back with ... Comcast? Yuk. Hey as long as they don't mess with our current unlimited plan with TWC, I guess we can deal with them.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#55Aren't there antitrust laws to protect against this exact sort of thing?
It doesn't violate anti-trust laws to buy another company you do not compete with. And there are very few, if any, territories where Comcast and TWC directly compete at present – depending on where you live, you can subscribe to one or the other (or some other cable company), but not both.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does Comcast compete with Time Warner? I thought they had geographically separate monopolies
I don't think they compete directly in vast majority of markets and for this to go through they will surely forfeit those smaller contested ones. I think this will go through. Then they will have a huge "content and subscriber" stick to wave around at Aereo, Netflix, Apple and anyone else wanting to play the net content hero.
> Then they will have a huge "content and subscriber" stick to wave around at Aero, Netflix, Apple and anyone else wanting to play the net content hero.
That's really the play here. Get a ton more captive users in order to better extort Netflix et al for access to those customers, and beat that stick until all their over the top service competitors are either out of business or uncompetitive. Then the real screwing of customers can commence in earnest.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#57I can't wait until we finally get around to relegating broadband providers as common carriers.
At the very least, we need a broadband version of Glass-Steagall, which forces ISPs, cable companies, and content providers to be separate entities.
The current situation is laughably awful for consumers. I can't imagine a single informed customer actually supporting the status quo.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#58It would be insane to let this go through. They're both effectively monopolists in most markets they serve; allowing them to combine just allows them to exert more political influence to make sure they keep their monopoly and high profit margins. Their core business is very much a low-value-added, rent-seeking concern, which doesn't benefit from economies of scale except for in as much as they can increase their mark…
Building the expensive infrastructure that Silicon Valley depends on to get its cat videos and advertisements to users is a low value add, rent seeking concern that doesn't benefit from economies of scale? Its exactly the opposite.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#59If this merger goes thru, (and the AnitTrust people would have to be really asleep at the wheel for that) two things are certain: 1) Americans can expect some of the worst Cable price gouging they have ever seen 2) NetFlix, Amazon Prime et al will become really popular as a result of all the customers saying "FU ComcastWarner"
> 2) NetFlix, Amazon Prime et al will become really popular as a result of all the customers saying "FU ComcastWarner"
I agree with your first point, but your second point doesn't follow. If anything, Comcast will price gouge Netflix out of business, and we'll be back to being stuck watching their awful "On Demand" instead.
They can do this, because Comcast owns the content (NBC), the delivery mechanism for said content (cable TV), and the only delivery mechanism (broadband Internet) for their competitor (Netflix/Amazon Prime).
On the other hand, the (failed) merger attempt between AT&T and T-Mobile was the best thing to happen to consumers in a long time, due to the breakup fee that AT&T had o pay T-Mobile($1+ billion worth of spectrum).
I'm trying to imagine a similar silver lining that could happen here, though I can't think of any.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#60If this merger goes thru, (and the AnitTrust people would have to be really asleep at the wheel for that) two things are certain: 1) Americans can expect some of the worst Cable price gouging they have ever seen 2) NetFlix, Amazon Prime et al will become really popular as a result of all the customers saying "FU ComcastWarner"
I don't think your second premise is entirely true, since Comcast doesn't provide enough bandwidth for streaming services like Netflix and YouTube already. Those services are going to become harder and harder to use if anything.
This would be a perfect point for the regulators to harp on for approval... No need to divest, just require a condition of the sale to provide a neutral network.