Posted on 02/13/2014 2:23:46 PM PST by lbryce
Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, will buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion in stock, combining America's two biggest cable operators, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday.
Under the deal expected to be announced Thursday morning, Time Warner Cable shareholders will receive $158.82 per share in stock for their shares, roughly $23 a share above where Time Warner has been trading, people familiar with the situation told the newspaper.
The deal is expected to end a takeover battle for Time Warner by Charter Communications, the nation's fourth biggest cable operator, and its biggest shareholder, Liberty Media, The Journal reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Wow they both sucked separately, now they can suck as a single entity.
CC
Now I'm rooting for Netflix and Google to gobble up Comcast.
I am a current TWC customer. Is this a good thing?
And I’ve always heard the opposite. That Comcast is the biggest suck.
I’ve had Time Warner for better than 20 years, and I love ‘em. They have local call centers, and they have usually reliable service techs when I need ‘em to come out for things.
I’ve looked in the past at dumping them for Dish or Direct TV, but then I talk to the poor suckers who have those providers.
But dittoes on your Netflix and Google comments. Soon - very soon - the way we view TV will not be by cable or satelite. And I’ll be happy, happy, happy at that.
Here's The One Sentence That Has Every Comcast And Time Warner Cable Employee Terrified
Yes, the rationale behind this is that it’s about ‘bandwidth’, not cable TV. 20 years ago, the internet was like radio in 1930, a pretty cool invention that no one knew how to make money from. Cable TV was just a bigger version of off-air TV, but things will get real interesting, and in the end you may end up with Verizon or Google as your bandwidth provider, regardless of whether it’s web, voice, or video.
Of course. The way M&A is possible is through “synergies”, i.e. eliminating duplication and consolidating functions. As an opbvious example, both companies have a headquarters - only need one of those, and guess which one it will probably be? Same thing with accounting, finance, HR, legal, etc right down the line. Consolidate, reduce headcount, and use the money saved to pay for the purchase.
The ones who will be least affected are the local offices as Comcast and TWC don’t have much overlap, so they’ll need to keep those office/folks in order to maintain service. But look for more “synergies” as for example, if TWC has US-based call centers and tech support desks, guess where Comcast’s are? And guess where they will end up being post-merger?
Why? They own that POS NBC and MSNBC channels.
Given that the DOJ didn’t allow ATT and T-Mobile, or Sprint and T-Mobile, there is no way they can approve this deal.
Comcast/Time Warner MERGER announced. This concerns the Milwaukee area especially.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
The two worst coming together to form a GIANT, STUPENDOUS, MEGA-SUCK. I feel bad for those where these two providers are the only thing going.
We are already checking into Uverse. Our TWC bill is outrageous and their CSRs are in India or somewhere. It is a hassle for internet due to the email address, so I am not sure when, but we will be going elsewhere.
The last time I called TWC, the man I spoke with did not speak English well and obviously did not understand it well either. Eventually, he came up with the standard, “let me schedule a technician” when it was not applicable at all. I have only noticed the non-English CSRs over the last 6 months.
Comcast’s Cohen lives in Philly...held HUGE fundraisers for him. This is a political favor if it goes through the FTC..
p.s. - I threw Comcast salespeople off my property because of their support for the “0”. I will NEVER use them.
I’m hoping TWC’s current annoying ad campaign ceases asap.
Around here, we have Cox. Over the past few years they'd gone from locally oriented to just plain awful. Now that they've got competition from Uverse, Cox has improved their game.
What's my point? People find alternatives when the provider of a not totally necessary service gets out of control.
Update: The honcho at Time Warner has been there 2 months. His compensation will be $80 million for those two months.
Comcast sucks so bad that they should not be buying anything. This company comcast needs to be dismantled or taken over and run by a person who possesses a brain.
U-Verse came to our ‘hood 3 years ago. Since then I’ve negotiated away all price increases from my cable company.
Lots of competition between them.
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