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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

#221

Post by 00rion »

ulfw wrote: post #198
chimeracoder wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 cont…

And how would this 'FU ComcastWarner' work in America? Anywhere you live you only have the choice of paying your cable provider, your telephone carrier or your wireless carrier for internet. - DSL infrastructure hasn't evolved in a decade or more. You're lucky to get mid-single digit megabits/sec. I had 0.7 mpbs offered to me in Mountain View by at&t. - Cable is the only speedy one, but they can price gouge you, limi…

municipal internet

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#222

Post by gorner »

mgkimsal wrote: post #214
gorner wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

but... they only don't compete because of govt sanctioned monopoly status in the first place, no?

Originally (and perhaps still in some specific areas), yes. Most regions have deregulated though, which is why FiOS, U-Verse and Google Fiber TV are able to exist.

But the infrastructure costs for Comcast to build out a brand new network in TWC territories (or vice-versa) on a mass scale would be pretty high.

For the sake of comparison (Google Fiber): http://news-beta.slashdot.org/story/12/12/08/1810244/nationw...

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#223

Post by canvia »

ulfw wrote: post #198
chimeracoder wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 cont…

And how would this 'FU ComcastWarner' work in America? Anywhere you live you only have the choice of paying your cable provider, your telephone carrier or your wireless carrier for internet. - DSL infrastructure hasn't evolved in a decade or more. You're lucky to get mid-single digit megabits/sec. I had 0.7 mpbs offered to me in Mountain View by at&t. - Cable is the only speedy one, but they can price gouge you, limi…

The latency on cellular internet makes it unusable for many applications like gaming.

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#225

Post by ritchiea »

gorner wrote: post #33
ritchiea wrote: post #7

Who 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.

Bigger scale, lower combined costs, more negotiating clout with TV channel operators, etc.

So monopoly

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#226

Post by kjhughes »

If you're wondering how this could possibly go through, see another WSJ article on the topic: "Comcast, Time Warner Deal to Spark Regulatory Debate, Outcome Uncertain"

http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304...

Summary: On the one hand, there are the obvious consumer concerns about the impact on pricing and service if the two largest cable companies were to merge. Besides Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission review, Congress will likely seek hearings where they can be seen being involved in such a high profile matter. On the other hand, Comcast successfully practiced completing the 2009 acquisition of NBCUniversal from GE by agreeing to a wide array of commitments with the Justice Department, FCC, and state attorney generals.

Article concludes that the acquisition may well go through: "This is the first major merger review under new FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, who once served as the cable industry's top lobbyist. Mr. Wheeler suggested in 2011 the Commission should have allowed AT&T to buy T-Mobile in exchange for agreeing to a new slate of regulations. Lawyers and analysts in Washington believe Comcast could similarly secure the Commission's approval by expanding its existing regulatory commitments."

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#228

Post by gorner »

ritchiea wrote: post #225
gorner wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bigger scale, lower combined costs, more negotiating clout with TV channel operators, etc.

So monopoly

Well, they're still competing with your local telco (AT&T / Verizon), DirecTV, Dish Network, and Google Fiber and/or others in some areas. (Though granted some of those are TV-only, not Internet.)

Not really much different than how Comcast and TWC are individually competing right now (as their service areas don't overlap). Though I'm not suggesting either one is a shining paragon of customer service or fair pricing (I don't have any first-hand experience to speak of there; I'm in Canada).

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#229

Post by MagicWishMonkey »

chc wrote: post #175
chalst wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might want Netflix to survive in some form so as to avoid awaking the sleeping antitrust dogs. Same way as Microsoft found the Mac a useful argument against the "desktop monopoly" argument in the 90s.

If they cared about that, I don't think they would be throttling Netflix.

They would simply enforce draconian bandwidth caps to disincentivize streaming altogether.

It's not like many of their users could opt for a different service, anyway.

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#230

Post by coldcode »

kjhughes wrote: post #226

If you're wondering how this could possibly go through, see another WSJ article on the topic: "Comcast, Time Warner Deal to Spark Regulatory Debate, Outcome Uncertain" http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304... Summary: On the one hand, there are the obvious consumer concerns about the impact on pricing and service if the two largest cable companies were to merge. Besides Justice Department and F…

That's why the cable industry put this guy into that job, to make deals like this easy as pie. Soon we will have The Cable Company and The Phone Company. Or maybe just The Company.
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