Comcast Agrees to Buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2B

Seriously what can possibly happen that would make things better in this country? We tried splitting up the Bells, now they're back bigger and stronger than ever. If we do the same thing with Cable companies in two decades we'll be even more screwed than we are now.

It's starting to get really dark and depressing in this country. Fascism, the merging of state and corporations, is almost a childish explanation of how bad it's getting with our cheap whore politicians.
 
Exavior said:
So what happen with that bit for just over $61M that Charter offered?
Click to expand...
Charter's offer was estimated a $133/share, and TWC countered with a ~$160/share offer. Charter balked, but Comcast then offered TWC that worked out to $159/share, and TWC accepted.
 
sfsuphysics said:
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.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Two competing titans of industry consolidated under one banner will most definitely lead to higher prices, more political clout and bribe money for lobbying Congress to get whatever the hell they want, and even greater difficulty for local municipals and small startup high speed ISP's that would attempt to enter the unified market of Comcast/TWC.

I cant tell you the amount of stories I've read over the years of foul play and dirty deals in squashing local municipals and small startup high speed ISP's that "threatened" the strangle hold and loss of profits of the big ISP's. This merger is a lose/lose for everyone who does not stand to profit from this merger (ie 99% of the population)
 
kbrickley said:
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.
Click to expand...

yeah i dont think they are direct competitors in many markets. in seattle there was only comcast, here in hawaii there is only TWC. i have to say, i have had pretty good experiences with TWC so far. although their rates are a little high, i chalk it up to being in hawaii as everything is more expensive here. speed, reliability, and customer service are actually pretty great. comcast was the absolute worst until i switched to their business class service, which was the same price in my case and infinitely better customer service. i guess i dont care all that much, but i do think it's too bad that we only have 1-3 providers in any given locale in the US. pretty ridiculous.
 
sfsuphysics said:
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.
Click to expand...

That last part is what kills it for me -- I've had Time Warner cable at my house for about 8 months, and I've had zero issues.

I pay 34 dollars a month (with taxes and fees) for 15 down; 1 up. I own my own Docsis3.0 modem, so no fees there.

No bandwidth caps, no fuss, I basically do whatever I want. The only other alternative is AT&T (whom I HATE)

I don't care what name is on the bill, I care about keeping the same price and getting the same speed.
 
Let's take a market that already had almost no competition and make it so it has literally no competition. Because that's awesome for consumers.
 
Cmdrmonkey said:
Let's take a market that already had almost no competition and make it so it has literally no competition. Because that's awesome for consumers.
Click to expand...

Please name even one single market where Comcast and TWC currently compete.

...or were you just ignorant and talking out your ass?
 
GotNoRice said:
Please name even one single market where Comcast and TWC currently compete.

...or were you just ignorant and talking out your ass?
Click to expand...

TV.

Or did you forget that all the NBC stations and content are owned by Comcast?
 
GotNoRice said:
Please name even one single market where Comcast and TWC currently compete.

...or were you just ignorant and talking out your ass?
Click to expand...

They don't, which is bad enough. And now they'll have a gigantic monopoly that will crush all competition.
 
Skripka said:
TV.

Or did you forget that all the NBC stations and content are owned by Comcast?
Click to expand...

No I didn't forget, I just don't see how it's relevant. How does TWC "compete" against Comcast for TV? I have AT&T UVerse for TV Service and nothing about Comcast owning NBC prevents me from getting any of their channels even though UVerse directly competes with Comcast.
 
I only have a few months left on my TW business class contract for my home. Our local phone company better hurry up and bring their Fioptics service to my neighborhood because I was barely able to tolerate TWC let alone now being forced to put up with Comcrap.
 
vader.jpg


michael-scott-no.gif



I've had every single ISP in the Kansas City area with the exception of Google Fiber, but my parents currently have it. Comcast is tolerable, but fuck data caps because I literally do everything online. ATT is horrendous due to cost, shitty unreliable speeds, and data caps. SureWest is more expensive, no caps, but the speeds tend to be unreliable. TWC has been the most reliable ISP for me, fastest, and cheapest. I would get Google Fiber, but Google's contracts only allow them to wire apartment complexes if the apartment complexes are willing to pay the cost of wiring EVERY SINGLE UNIT. I have only seen one apartment complex do it so far.

I have no love for Time Warner, but they are the only ISP in my area with reliable high speed WITHOUT DATA CAPS!

Fuck you Comcast. Fuck you.
 
jroe52 said:
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"?
Click to expand...

So you can go over the 250GB cap quicker, perhaps?
 
So they want to take 2 companies that have 1000's of local monopolies, and make them into an even bigger monopoly? I'm sure that will help the consumer.

I just recieved a $16 increase on my Cox Cable Bill. That's another 11% on top of the increases last year.

Can't use an antenna due to poor reception (I'm on the wrong side of a hill), so there's no other choice for TV. For Internet, my only other choice is very slow DSL due to my house being toward the end of the street.

Might have to switch to Satallite for TV, or at the very least Cox is going to loose my phone service, as I'll switch it to one of the cheap IP based plans and save most the amount of this increase.
 
Low Roller said:
Charter's offer was estimated a $133/share, and TWC countered with a ~$160/share offer. Charter balked, but Comcast then offered TWC that worked out to $159/share, and TWC accepted.
Click to expand...

Which I must be missing something. I don't see how $61.3 billion can be less per share than $45.2 billion. Because 61.3 is larger than 45.2
 
I just recently canceled my service with Comcast, I'm absolutely tired of them jacking my bill up every couple months. I was just fine with $40/mo for slow internet + basic cable, but then they started doing me "favors" and adding channels onto my service and then tacking on more money to my bill until my basic cable and bottom tier internet is now over $100/mo. Just outright disgusting and they can get away with it because there isn't any competition for home services.
 
Ugh some of that Comcast money came from me. I don't like Comcast but there are no decent alternatives in my area. Can I live without an internet connection? Probably, but I wouldn't want to risk it! :p
 
Exavior said:
Which I must be missing something. I don't see how $61.3 billion can be less per share than $45.2 billion. Because 61.3 is larger than 45.2
Click to expand...

You have to take into account debt, and how the deal was going to be paid for (Charter: cash and stock, Comcast: stock) among other things In the end, Charter's deal was worth $62.35 billion, and Comcast's $69 billion.
 
Skripka said:
TV.

Or did you forget that all the NBC stations and content are owned by Comcast?
Click to expand...

TWC is not a part of Time Warner. Other than regional channels, which almost every cable provider has they largely do not compete in the same space as Comcast media wise.
 
Most of us never had a choice, you were either in a Time Warner area or a Comcrap area. So this means nothing to us. Also from what I have heard Time Warner was the worse of the two so I guess its better for people over on that side of the fence.
 
rudy said:
Most of us never had a choice, you were either in a Time Warner area or a Comcrap area. So this means nothing to us. Also from what I have heard Time Warner was the worse of the two so I guess its better for people over on that side of the fence.
Click to expand...

they definitely don't compete with each other... but the reason you didn't have a choice is because of absolutely crazy stuff like cable companies lobbying for anti-municipal ISPs...

my city rolled out fiber with the city owned power company to light up for a cheap/fast/accessible fiber network for the people in this town, but the cable companies got it passed in NC to make it illegal to have municipal ISPs.... it's blatant anticonsumerism...

what i'm upset about is that now the money is EVEN MORE consolidated (not that they weren't already in cahoots with each other to get this kind of crap passed in the first place) to allow more of this crap...

it's a broken system on so many levels... this is just not a step in the right direction no matter how you look at it...

if you think any money they save from this merger will be passed on to consumers you're on crack...
 
Exavior said:
Which I must be missing something. I don't see how $61.3 billion can be less per share than $45.2 billion. Because 61.3 is larger than 45.2
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm not sure how the bean counting works on something like either.
 
Ryokurin said:
You have to take into account debt, and how the deal was going to be paid for (Charter: cash and stock, Comcast: stock) among other things In the end, Charter's deal was worth $62.35 billion, and Comcast's $69 billion.
Click to expand...

And there is the difference. $69 does not equal $45.2B. The missing part there is what was confusing me. All you kept seeing is TWC turned down $61.3B offered by Charter to accept $45.2B from Comcast. which that statement alone made no sense. Now when you actually look at each one on equal ground it makes far more sense.
 
Even if they normally run in different towns, you still have content (stations) owned by both so that gives Comcast more content that they control.
 
Look I don't get why you guys are still fear mongering. How many of you get to choose between Comcast and Time Warner? At least now if they are together Comcast won't be able to tell regulators OH WELL TW is our competitor. And that means that maybe we will see some real change eventually.

The fault of the lack of competition in this country lies with idiots like Verizon, so if you really care then put your money where your mouth is and abandon Verizon. They are the clowns who gamed the system and people and took subsidies that were supposed to be used to roll out fiber optics in more areas and instead applied it to their wireless network, giving them a huge lead and screwing the majority of us out of any hope of seeing a decent competitor to cable in our area for high speed internet.

And if customer service really does get much worse and prices go up, well good for us because what that will mean is more people will be pissed enough to drop cable and eventually that will push more TV producers to find a reasonable way to get their customers content over IP. If we are really lucky maybe the last hold out, the sports networks will finally break free of the cable cos and partner up with guys like Google, Netflix, or Amazon.
 
I had been one of those that wrote the FCC at specific addresses, I got a generic response from a different email address that they are reviewing my feedback Friday.
 
jroe52 said:
I had been one of those that wrote the FCC at specific addresses, I got a generic response from a different email address that they are reviewing my feedback Friday.
Click to expand...

Come Friday you will get another email. "Thank you for voicing your concern about the Comcast deal to purchase Time Warner Cable. While we appreciate your concern about this deal you fail to realize the good that will come from such a deal. Mainly the large piles of money that will show up in my bank account and allow my wife to go on shopping sprees all over the world. We think that the good from this deal outweigh the bad at this point in time."
 
...please tell me comcast is better then TWC. I can't deal with something even shittier.
 
I love my 55 Mbps cable connection from Comcast, but I really wish that speed and availability wasn't limited to Comcast alone. And as they buy up the regional ISPs like Time Warner, there goes the hope for competition to lower prices and increase bandwidth.
 
update:
Dear Mr. Jeremy Roe,

Thank you for your email to the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice regarding the recently announced merger between Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable expressing your concerns about the combination of the two firms. Your email was forwarded to me for review.

The Department reviews proposed mergers to ensure that they do not harm competition in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 18. Although the Department cannot comment on any specific investigation, we carefully review all proposed transactions in the video programming and broadband industries and take appropriate action based on the results of our review. See, e.g., Final Judgment, United States v. Comcast Corp. et al., Case No. 11-00106 (D.D.C. Sept. 1, 2011), available at http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f274700/274713.pdf.

The Department uses many tools in conducting its investigations, and hearing directly from people such as yourself is one important source of information, so we appreciate you contacting us. We will contact you if we need any additional information.


Regards,
Althelia Carter
U.S. Department of Justice - Antitrust Division
Telecommunications & Media Enforcement Section
450 5th Street NW| Room 7002
Washington, DC 20530
(202) 514-5816| [email protected]
 
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

FTC, you had ONE job, to prevent crap like this from happening. Why do we even have antitrust laws?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top