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US telecoms giant AT&T has announced that it will buy entertainment group Time Warner for nearly $86bn (£70bn). The deal - one of the biggest this year - still needs approval from regulators. If the takeover goes through, it would combine AT&T's distribution network with content from the Warner Brothers film studios and the cable TV channels HBO and CNN. AT&T's chairman described it as "a perfect match" but critics say it concentrates too much media power. 'Complementary strengths' The deal is likely to be closely scrutinised by US antitrust regulators. AT&T is already the third largest cable TV provider...

Donald Trump expressed that he would not approve the AT&T and Time Warner merger if elected president. "Deals like this destroy democracy," said Trump during a rally in Gettysburg, Pa., on Saturday, where he discussed what he would do in the first 100 days of his presidency.

It's the NY Slimes so only source URL is provided.

ATT was in my neighborhood today promoting U-verse. I haven't had any experience with it and have been on Time Warner for a long time. Is Uverse any better than Time Warner? Time Warner over the past year has been a disappointment in a lot of areas. I'm more interested in data and internet than TV and plan to keep the POTS line. ATT offers a dedicated 24 meg line. TWC is 20ish and a lot of times I don't think it's that much. It's probably shared through the area. I've run speed tests and got anywhere from 15-19.

Why Trump may be costing Democrats millions for their convention The GOP is struggling to raise cash from corporate donors, and now Democrats are feeling the pinch. By Anna Palmer and Brianna Gurciullo 04/18/16 05:34 AM EDT Republicans have been struggling for months in the shadow of Donald Trump to get corporate sponsors to pony up for their convention. Now Democratic fundraisers are feeling their pain, too. Several Fortune 500 companies — including Bank of America, Duke Energy and Time Warner —are taking a pass on chipping in for the Democratic convention in Philadelphia or, with just 100 days to...

Imagine downloading Game of Thrones - all seasons, in HD - within a single second. That's what a next-generation optical transmission system developed by University College London scientists could do. Their system can handle a rate of 1.125 terabit per second - that's 50,000 times faster than the average "superfast" broadband connection in the UK. The team set the record for the fastest ever data rate for digital information. The infrastructure itself isn't revolutionary. The system uses optical fibres, which are already used to carry binary code as light signals through thousands of kilometres of wire. What has made the...

Time Warner Cable has sent notices to 320,000 of its customers throughout the U.S., advising them to change the password to their email account out of concern that someone may have gained unauthorized access to that information. The telecommunication company said it was notified of the vulnerability by the FBI, but there’s no evidence to suggest that there was an actual breach. “Approximately 320,000 customers across our markets could be impacted by this situation,” explained Eric Mangan, director of public relations. “To protect the security of these customers, we are sending emails and direct mail correspondence to encourage them to...

Thousands of customers in at least three states are impacted. The company sent out a tweet Monday: "We are working to resolve the internet issues in the Midwest as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience." No timetable is known for resolving the issues. WI too

It appears the long, frustrating wait for Dodgers fans hoping to see their team on TV will continue indefinitely. Multiple reports Thursday indicated the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable – distributor of the Dodgers-owned SportsNet LA – was on the verge of collapsing. The merger between the companies had been viewed as a potential solution to the distribution impasse that has prevented about 70 percent of the local market from seeing the majority of Dodgers games since the start of last season. The collapse of that deal means "the status quo remains in place," said sports-media consultant...

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...

Sanders blasts U.S Corporations for Dodging Taxes BURLINGTON, Vt., April 9 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the Senate Budget Committee ranking member, today issued the following statement on new data showing the extent to which some American companies are avoiding taxes: “I applaud Citizens for Tax Justice for releasing new data today revealing the unfairness of our tax system and the fact that a number of the biggest and most-well known corporations in America continue to pay little or nothing in taxes. At a time when we have massive wealth and income inequality, and when corporate profits are soaring, it...

The newly released documents buttress a report issued late last month detailing how an immigration director was swayed with respect to hundreds of millions of dollars in film and TV investments under the EB-5 visa program. The U.S. Department of Homeland SecurityÂ’s inspector general has released hundreds of pages of emails plus other documents in support of its investigation of improper influence on the EB-5 immigration program. Many of the documents discuss hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for film and television productions from Sony Pictures and Time Warner with prominent politicians including former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendall and...

The National Association of African-American Owned Media alleges that Sharpton and other advocates have been bought off. Even though the FCC hasn't yet ruled on the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, one group has already filed a lawsuit claiming at least $20 billion in damages from the way the two giants allegedly discriminate against black-owned media. The complaint, filed in California on Friday, comes from the National Association of African-American Owned Media, which also filed a similar suit against AT&T and DirecTV in December. This time, the plaintiff is not only targeting both Comcast and TWC on...

Obama lackey John Podesta who founded the far left Center for American Progress is about as transparent as Obama. The Center of American Progress has been hiding it’s donor lists for month. Finally, today they were shamed into releasing a partial list of donors. Problem is Podesta’s Center for American Progress isn’t accounting for over $5 million in donations from ‘anonymous sources.’ Podesta will likely be a big part of Hillary Clinton’s run next year, if the old granny does in fact run. Wonder if she’ll get questions about her buddy Podesta’s missing $5 million. Funny too that you don’t...

A few years back I heard about a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called “Cop Killer” celebrating ambushing and murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. -Police across the country were outraged. Rightfully so — at least one had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black. I heard Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned some shares at the time, so...

That would be the Democratic, Barack Obama-appointed FCC chair, who spent yesterday backpedaling from his boss on a major policy announcement. Obama went so far as to push out a video demanding unilateral action from the FCC on Net Neutrality, the latest White House distraction from the disastrous midterm elections and an attempt to show that Obama is still relevant: “As long as I’m President,” Obama says into the camera after cheesy, 1996-style buffering graphics, “that’s what I’ll be fighting for, too.” He may be fighting for it, but Obama clearly isn’t managing for it very well. Within hours of this...

The company’s cable division has appointed a new executive in charge of the “customer experience.” After years of customer service complaints, Comcast said Friday it is appointing a new executive to fix the problem.

My cable bill jumped a bunch this month. When I asked why, several promotions had expired etc etc etc.Anyway, the service rep at Time Warner gave me a better price on a package deal that includes cable TV, internet and phone service. A question I have is about continuity of their phone service if the cable/power goes out. It does happen sporatically here.

The media giant 21st Century Fox, the empire run by Rupert Murdoch, made an $80 billion takeover bid in recent weeks for Time Warner Inc. but was rebuffed. The bold approach could put Time Warner in play and might again ignite a reshaping of the media industry, prompting a new spate of mega-mergers among the nation’s largest entertainment companies. Mr. Murdoch has built a global media juggernaut over nearly five decades spanning studios, television channels and newspapers, in part, by pursuing bold deals that were often rebuffed at first by the targets of his overtures, only to later acquiesce. Time...

Cable TV's sports costs are prompting a growing number of people to "cut the cord". Exhibit A: The $8 billion charged by the Dodgers for broadcast rights to their games knowing full well that pay-TV companies would have to pass along this sky-high cost to all customers. Time Warner Cable is the Dodgers' partner in crime. It paid that whopping sum for exclusive rights to distribute the Dodgers channel to other pay-TV companies, assuming, like the team, that it would get away with sticking both fans and non-fans with an extra $4 to $5 fee every month. The harsh reality,...