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AT&T Cleared by Judge to Buy Time Warner

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

#151

Post by Bucephalus355 »

I want to give an unconventional view that supports this decision.

The two companies merging are walking into a trap.

Their size makes them an attractive target for nationalization. ATT started off as a private company. It’s size however lead to it being effectively taken over by the government. The resulting monopoly came to employ 1 million people at its height. Adjusted for population growth, that’s be like the entirety of all the military branches today.

Before anyone mentions anything about automation though, let me say, there are plenty of jobs. If any of you have had the pleasure of a company giving you a secretary, you know that many jobs that have supposedly been automated, we are just doing without.

Also as cyber security becomes more of a concern, none of these jobs can be outsourced. Can you imagine whatever company builds our 5G network having their NOC in say Costa Rica (assuming world relations continue to deteriorate), or customer support outsourcing to the Philippines?

I know my views are wrong in some areas, but I hope they open a few new ways of viewing things.

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

#152

Post by LyndsySimon »

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?

I live in rural Arkansas, and have 300Mbps.

I’m promised gigabit this summer, but we’ll see.

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

#154

Post by ganoushoreilly »

Bucephalus355 wrote: post #151

I want to give an unconventional view that supports this decision. The two companies merging are walking into a trap. Their size makes them an attractive target for nationalization. ATT started off as a private company. It’s size however lead to it being effectively taken over by the government. The resulting monopoly came to employ 1 million people at its height. Adjusted for population growth, that’s be like the en…

"Also as cyber security becomes more of a concern, none of these jobs can be outsourced."

I wish you were correct, but this doesn't actually seem to be the case. You have people outsourcing directly, or going with MSSP that are themselves outsourcing. I'd say a good 70% of the customers I deal with in the space are in this boat, most of which are in Financials and High Tech (engineering) spaces.

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

#155

Post by jadedhacker »

mxschumacher wrote: post #122
jadedhacker wrote: post #107

Media consolidation infographic from 2011. Back then, six companies controlled 90% of the market. I wonder where we're at now? http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-...

through the rise of original content production from Amazon and Netflix and the overall shift to internet delivery (including Youtube and Podcasts) I'd argue we're in a less concentrated situation today.

Yes and no. I agree 100% for podcasts. However, while Youtube and Netflix are encouraging more producers they retain veto power on their platforms. This is key.

In the case of Netflix, it's obvious they only host what they want on their platform. In the case of Youtube, they are increasingly banning videos.

This isn't my particular hobbyhorse issue, but it was the first result for "youtube ban political videos" and it has a huge constituency.

"Youtube to Ban Videos Promoting Gun Sales"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/business/youtube-gun-ban....

VICE Motherboard chronicles Youtube's history of escalating censorship.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59jgka/a-brief-hi...

On a decentralized platform (i.e. the real web) this would be impossible or nearly so.

You might disagree with or laugh at the people losing money or literally being censored on one of the biggest public squares in the world, but it's not democratic and media consolidation will never ever result in something compatible with the free and open exchange of ideas.

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

#156

Post by makomk »

dschuler wrote: post #114

It's interesting that the Trump administration was eager to block this deal (Trump has made statements in favor of preventing this merger), while enthusiastically repealing net neutrality. Maybe expecting consistency here is reading too much into the tea leaves. At the same time, AT&T stock is down in after hours trading. Does this mean that investors believe this merger will be bad for AT&T, or at least for short-te…

The fundamental philosophy at play here, I think - so far as there is one - is that government regulation cannot and should not be used to try and regulate away the negative effects of lack of competition, that instead it should ensure that a competitive marketplace exists and let the market take care of it.

If I recall correctly, there's an explanation of this position from Ajit Pai's FCC, which in particular references the NBC Universal-Comcast merger and explains why the FCC no longer wishes to allow such mergers.

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

#157

Post by saghm »

mattnewton wrote: post #134
jandrese wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix is your ISP?

I don’t think time warner is an isp anymore

Time Warner is definitely still an ISP where I live (NYC)

EDIT: Never mind, I was unaware of the split between the cable and internet businesses. (I still agree with the sibling comments that this isn't hugely important given that AT&T is still an ISP)

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

#158

Post by s2g »

Bucephalus355 wrote: post #151

I want to give an unconventional view that supports this decision. The two companies merging are walking into a trap. Their size makes them an attractive target for nationalization. ATT started off as a private company. It’s size however lead to it being effectively taken over by the government. The resulting monopoly came to employ 1 million people at its height. Adjusted for population growth, that’s be like the en…

> Their size makes them an attractive target for nationalization

Sure, except this is America.

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

#159

Post by s2g »

jaredklewis wrote: post #137
ajonnav wrote: post #89

> The judge indicated during the trial that he wasn’t buying Shapiro’s projection. After his testimony, Leon said he was "confused." Further explanation from Shapiro didn’t help. "I’m not sure I got it, but it’s too late and too hot to belabor the point any further," the judge said. Amazing on so many different levels. (Shapiro is the economist whose model the DOJ based their case off of).

Well let's not grab our pitchforks just yet. I'm sure if this was a thread discussing Judge Leon's 2013 opinion that NSA metadata collection violated the 4th amendment, HN would be singing his praises. But in this case he's approved a merger we don't like so he must be a total idiot or (as is being suggested further down in the thread) was bribed and has family members that will be getting board AT&T seats pretty soo…

We can still pull out the pitchforks based on the notion that he didn't understand the "expert" opinion presented and just decided not bother?

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

#160

Post by s2g »

TomMckenny wrote: post #144
kuraudo wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get what you're saying, but that shouldn't matter in a sane world. This merger is bad news for the citizenry.

>This merger is bad news for the citizenry. It is. And had it been successfully blocked, the message would be clearly understood by media outlet owners far beyond CNN's owner. It is in fact lose-lose. Same goes for whatever ends up happening to Amazon/WaPo. This is the only anti-trust you can expect to see now.

> Same goes for whatever ends up happening to Amazon/WaPo.

Pretty sure Bezos bought it, not Amazon.

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