Posted on 04/23/2015 6:47:05 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Facing intense regulatory scrutiny, Comcast is planning to abandon its $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable, people briefed on the matter said on Thursday, ending a bid that would have united the country’s two largest cable operators and reshaped the rapidly evolving video and broadband markets.
The collapse of the deal comes as technology changes and an array of Internet offerings upend how people watch and pay for television, making broadband service more important than ever. Had the deal been approved, the combined company would have controlled as much as 57 percent of the nation’s broadband market and just under 30 percent of pay television.
Opponents portrayed Comcast’s effort as a land grab that would give the company too much leverage in the industry, and over the last year lawmakers, consumers, public advocacy groups and media and technology companies rallied against the merger. Complaints reached a fever pitch in recent weeks.
The fears were plenty: that customers would end up paying more for declining service; that the industry behemoth would use its heft to stifle competition in the budding online video business; that there would be a lack of independent and diverse voices on television. Critics also criticized the company for failing to live up to promises it had made in previous deals, particularly its successful acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
like Comcast could suck any more than they already do? PPHHHTT.
Was this a Hillary do -over too?
My guess it the Chinese, Russians or Arabs will now buy one of the companies, if still for sale...
Excellent. All that Comcast CEO face time with Mullah Baraq was wasted, I guess......bwahahahaha....
Wow.
Two companies full of Homo Bitches can’t get along?
There must have been some Muslimes involved...
Boy, if true you TWC customer dodged a BIG bullet there. Comcast sucks, Comcast is evil, Comcast lies. Did I mention sucks?
Terrible company, terrible customer service. Trained monkeys could do a better job.
We have Time-Warner here, and they suck, their service and customer care blows chunks and the price keeps creeping up. Nuts!
The reason is simple: they would wield too much control over cable systems in the #1 and #2 media markets, New York City and Los Angeles. And there is the specter that the FTC and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division would require that Comcast sell off the NBC Universal division, too.
My Time Warner bill went up from $102 in Dec 2013 to $137 today. I have no movie channels like hbo etc. The bill just went up and up. Gotta pay the graft to the democrats.
Comcast has a very risky business model. Rather than charge customers less so they attract more customers, they charge more, with fewer customers. Soon they will have so few customers that no amount of money will bring a profit. With so many wireless competitors, Comcast may not have any tricks in the toolbox to crawl out of the hole they’ve made.
” With so many wireless competitors, Comcast may not have any tricks in the toolbox to crawl out of the hole they’ve made.”
Couldn’t happen to a “nicer” company. Now if only the same problem could befall AT&T! When you list A1 $hitpile companies, AT&T is the white speck on the chicken$hit.
Good, the LAST thing we need is a consolidation of media companies. This thing should have been DOA from the start.
Both of them are bad, so bad that AT&T seems like a breath of fresh air.
Was this a Hillary Do-Over?
With that kind of cash why did they not grease the skids with a
billion dollar contribution to the CF?
Dumba$$es!
Mine too. I’m going to call them and get some stuff removed. They are usually very accomodating about that and it reduces the bill somewhat.
I was offered a 12% reduction... still too expensive. I have ROKU and a tv antenna and a tablet that can “fling” the content over to my wifi enabled tv to get most of what I want.
I just haven’t pulled the plug. Worried about withdrawal symptoms. : )
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.