Comcast Agrees to Buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2B

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Don't worry, I'm not going to bring up the last time our friends at Time Warner were in a multi-billion dollar deal like this (AOL), wait....I guess I just did. :D

Investors of New York-based Time Warner Cable will receive 2.875 Comcast stock for each of their shares, the companies said in a joint statement today. The deal values each Time Warner Cable share at $158.82, or 17 percent more than its close yesterday. The transaction, subject to approval by stockholders and regulators, is expected to be completed by the end of 2014. Time Warner Cable shares jumped 11 percent to $150.65 in early U.S. trading. Comcast, based in Philadelphia, slipped 0.4 percent to $55.
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I somehow doubt this is going to happen... it would be taking away what slim competition there already is in the CableTV/ISP industry. I wouldn't put it past some greased politicians trying to ram it though but I think it's going to receive a LOT of scrutiny. If the FCC wouldn't allow ATT to take over Tmo, then I highly doubt this is going to either.
 
Yup, this pissed me off last night when I posted it.
As much as I love life in a rural area I just might have to move!
Dear god, Comcast or AT&T, it just keeps getting worse!
 
No way do the regulators let this go through. The #1 and #2 cable companies merging would cause all sorts problems for any competition. Just like the AT&T/T-Mobile merger....just because they made a deal doesn't mean the government is going to let it happen.
 
LOL, you would have to think at least half of that 45 billion would have to be going towards greasing the politicians in charge of pushing through and approving a merger as ridiculous as this.
 
Drep said:
No way do the regulators let this go through. The #1 and #2 cable companies merging would cause all sorts problems for any competition. Just like the AT&T/T-Mobile merger....just because they made a deal doesn't mean the government is going to let it happen.
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Have you seen the kinds of things you're government does now a days? This has possibility to pass.....i wouldn't put them past it.

I do find this interesting as here in Costa Rica where i live right now, i can choose between 4 different providers for cable tv and about 6 for internet.
 
It seems our mountain of crappy service has now become a volcano.

The Feds might buy it if they dump customers as stated but the overall effect would be a total monopoly on many major cities wires and networking. Just a bad bad idea.
 
satsunada said:
It seems our mountain of crappy service has now become a volcano.

The Feds might buy it if they dump customers as stated but the overall effect would be a total monopoly on many major cities wires and networking. Just a bad bad idea.
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I'm not sure for whom this would be a good thing...other than ComCrap.
 
TWC is worse than Comcast in my experience and as much as I hated Comcast... when I moved to an area where it was only TWC... it was bad. I never knew a company could be even more retarded than Comcast. TWC proved that to me. People were signing a petition to confirm they were ok with the possible monopoly just as long as we can get Comcast instead of TWC.

Speaking of.. I have to call Comcast today...
 
About the only way I'd want to see this go through is if there were some agreements in place to loosen (or eliminate) restrictions on municipal broadband (and things like Google Fiber).

As it is right now, Comcast/TW is a ridiculously massive hegemony.
 
that sucks. watch the rates go sky high since they'll have less competition for local cable companies.
 
Less competition?
Most local cable outfits are virtual monopolies as it is.
 
Drep said:
No way do the regulators let this go through. The #1 and #2 cable companies merging would cause all sorts problems for any competition. Just like the AT&T/T-Mobile merger....just because they made a deal doesn't mean the government is going to let it happen.
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Except, unlike ATT and TMobile, Comcast and TWC don't actually compete with each other in most markets. Also, Comcast is proposing they divest their customers in the markets where they actually do complete (3 million customers out of their 30 million combined) so there would be the same level of competition there is now.

I would be extremely surprised if the government blocks this and the cities are unlikely to care since most have only allowed either TWC or Comcast to operate within their boundaries, but not both.
 
If you guys think this is bad, it's really no different than the previous situation. They already had a total monopoly in the areas they've provided services for.
 
Time Warner is/was shit. We pay about $100/mo for cable and 20Mbps/1Mbps, and it took 3 appointments (and a ton of excuses) to get them to finally set everything up. I'm already on the fence about ditching TWC, but I can't imagine it getting any worse.
 
SPARTAN VI said:
Time Warner is/was shit. We pay about $100/mo for cable and 20Mbps/1Mbps, and it took 3 appointments (and a ton of excuses) to get them to finally set everything up. I'm already on the fence about ditching TWC, but I can't imagine it getting any worse.
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Bandwidth caps...arbitrary traffic shaping...cutting off content (like the 2014 Olympics) without notice just because...

You "can't imagine it getting any worse", huh? You either haven't been paying attention and/or have a very limited imagination.
 
dr.stevil said:
I somehow doubt this is going to happen... it would be taking away what slim competition there already is in the CableTV/ISP industry. I wouldn't put it past some greased politicians trying to ram it though but I think it's going to receive a LOT of scrutiny. If the FCC wouldn't allow ATT to take over Tmo, then I highly doubt this is going to either.
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Yup..I agree...slim to no chance the FCC will allow it
 
From a lack of competition perspective, this isn't great, but I just have to laugh at all the people who currently have TW and somehow think this is going to make their connection worse. Comcast has always been a great connection for me. They constantly upgrade their infrastructure in our market and push new tech (New version of DOCSIS, new speeds, etc). Comcast now offers speeds 4 times faster than the fastest UVerse tier while remaining price competitive. I'm always able to utilize the full bandwidth of my connection at any time of day. From talking to people who currently have TW, they'd be lucky to have comcast take them over.
 
Back when AT&T was trying to buy T-Mobile, I e-mailed the US DOJ Anti-Trust Division letting them know my thoughts about it. I suggest everyone do the same with this merger.

Contact the Antitrust Division
Main address:
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
E-mail: [email protected]
 
Unfortunately, I think the FCC green lights this deal with relatively little fuss.

1. Comcast and Time Warner territories do not overlap therefore they do not compete against each other for consumers. It will be a tough sale to convince regulators that the purposed merger will decrease competition in any of the markets the merger covers.

When the FCC blocked AT&T's acquisition bid for T-Mobile, it did so because those companies compete directly against each other in several markets.

2. Like other areas of government, the FCC is increasingly in the pocket of corporations. In fact, the current chairman is a former lobbyist for the cable industry.
 
SPARTAN VI said:
Time Warner is/was shit. We pay about $100/mo for cable and 20Mbps/1Mbps, and it took 3 appointments (and a ton of excuses) to get them to finally set everything up. I'm already on the fence about ditching TWC, but I can't imagine it getting any worse.
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Bitch, Bitch, Bitch beside it doesn't cost $100 for that package you have you also have TV service with that or Phone service.
Here I live in Coleman, Oklahoma I paid
Internet $51 1Mbps/256kbps
TV service $130
Phone service $25

More then like lee this will never happing that will give Comcast way to much power over the smaller cable television companies.
I don't know why ever one is bitching about TWC I had them in Ohio.
 
I bet the customers get an e-mail stating "due to the merger Bandwith cap and prices will be "adjusted" :D
 
I wrote the FCC. The oligopoly will only get smaller in addition to hampering growth in technology. Why increase bandwidth speeds when you can collect fees for going over "250gb"?
 
After nearly a decade of relentless lobbying and court appeals by big ISP's (Comcast & Time Warner both) they finally manage to grease enough pockets and twist enough arms to kill Net Neutrality. Still reeling from this god awful news, now were to learn these two whore$ of industry are merging :mad: ?

My guess is this merger was negotiated a while ago and they waited to move forward with it until they got their way with killing Net Neutrality. It might have hurt their chances of getting the ruling overturned with the scrutiny that naturally accompanies two titans of industry merging.

We all collectively need to get loud as hell about this and demand this hostile takeover and further encroachment on the internet ends here!
 
Czech99 said:
that sucks. watch the rates go sky high since they'll have less competition for local cable companies.
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Competition? What's zat? Out here where I live in a rural area it's TWC cable and Verizon DSL, Verizon wants to dump the landlines and that means no DSL anymore and Verizons idea of a replacement for DSL is LTE that is a dud by comparison I've read.

I get TWC now, I used to have DSL, until Verizon kept on doing bits of Sabotage, er Maintenance that frequently resulted in My service going half dead, which in a Central Office is easy to do, just swap 2 wires and you get NO IP address, yet the modem thinks it's still getting DSL... Yep I had Zombie DSL, TWC by comparison is better. I'd rather not have TWC merge with Comcast, I'd rather see TWC and Charter merge, which I thought was what either TWC and/or Charter wanted...
 
Low Roller said:
Unfortunately, I think the FCC green lights this deal with relatively little fuss.

1. Comcast and Time Warner territories do not overlap therefore they do not compete against each other for consumers. It will be a tough sale to convince regulators that the purposed merger will decrease competition in any of the markets the merger covers.
.
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This. Nothing will change except the name of the company on your bill, and perhaps how much it costs you. You won't have fewer choices.
 
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