Comcast 'flees $45bn monster-merger with Time Warner Cable' Comcast is walking away from its proposed $45bn merger with Time Warner Cable (TWC), insiders claim. Comcast will announce as early as Friday its intent to scrap its plans for the mega-acquisition, according to well-placed sources speaking to Bloomberg. Comcast did not take up The Register's offer to deny the claims. The …
Maybe, just maybe, all the email sent (including mine) opposing the merger actually had some effect. At least that's what I'll tell myself for today, before we find out the real reason they killed it. Still good news regardless. The very last thing we need is Comcast controlling/destroying more of the market.
Hmm I wonder if it was 2016 if they might have just tried and delay it until after the next presidential election and hope for a friendlier ally running things (either party after they dump 20 million on both SuperPACs). After all it worked for Microsoft after W took office. Still great news for the little guy for once. Comcast reputation did nothing to help them I am sure.
....to say the least. Since corporations usually don't bow down to public pressure I have to wonder what they have up their sleeve. Yeah... a bit tinfoily hat but this is one corporation I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole or a 7-foot Lithuanian. They're not just going to walk away with nothing.
@Mark 85: corporations don't usually bow to public pressure, but they do bow to regulatory roadblocks, which can (and sometimes do) respond to the public.
In this case, added to the public pressure are all the municipalities which regulate cable companies AND the production companies, none of whom liked the idea of a monolithic cable company with 60% of the market deciding which channels were carried, what rates were charged, and what bundles existed (phone, cable and ISP...)
The muttering was that the FCC wasn't/isn't going to let this one slide through. If the FCC imposes too many restrictions, the deal wouldn't make sense, so they would have to lobby to get Congress to overrule the FCC, which costs a lot. So better to drop the deal now than to pay lots of money and still maybe not get the deal they want/need for this to make sense.
Of course, the other part of it is that Comcast and TWC are currently spending LOADS of money to try to persuade Congress to reverse the FCC on the Net Neutrality rules, and perhaps they just figured that weren't going to win both, so better to focus on the one they really care about.
Can anyone remember the wet & sloppy merger of Time Warner and AOL? It was slated as one of the "biggest ever in history" at 164 x 10⁹ USD and a clusterfuck of (back then) giganormous proportions (in today's paper money, that would probably be more like 200 x 10⁹ USD, amirite?)
With Google fibre already on the way and the chokehold on municipal broadband removed, Comcast needs to reallocate its capital back into its infrastructure. The TWC merger would bring them even more antiquated kit in need of upgrade. Of course with all the delicate exec egos at risk, they'll try putting the best face on it.
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