Gobble away! Charter-Time Warner Cable merger OK'd by FCC

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given its blessing to Charter's $78.7bn acquisition of Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Bright House Networks. The watchdog said on Friday in a brief statement that it had approved the massive biz gobble with conditions floated earlier by FCC chairman Tom Wheeler. Those conditions …

[ma1010]

A cornucopia of benefits for consumers!

"The significant benefits of these transactions are clear; greater competition..."

Of COURSE! Merging companies obviously produces MORE competition. I can't wait until AT&T, Comcast and Charter merge. Then we'll have LOTS of competition so it will be a buyer's market. Right? I said, "RIGHT?"

[ecofeco]

Re: A cornucopia of benefits for consumers!

"You some kinda commie, boy?!"

- some famous movie quote

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: A cornucopia of benefits for consumers!

This is Hitler's "big lie" propaganda technique. Just say the exact opposite of the truth, and any opposition will be so flabbergasted by the stupidity yet audacity of the lie, it will get by unopposed.

[Mark 85]

"Charter will be a stronger competitor in the broadband and video markets, well positioned to deliver these benefits and more to consumers."

Competitor? With who? Where I am, Charter's competitor is Centurylink and all they have is DSL. Not much faster than dialup*.

I'm guessing my rates (Charter) are now going to go up so they can pay for this without affecting profit and exec bonuses.

*Tried them, got rid of them a week later as many times their network was so overloaded, I couldn't even get to El Reg.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm guessing my rates (Charter) are now going to go up so they can pay for this without affecting profit and exec bonuses.

They most certainly are. Deal premium, costs and fiddles for preferred shareholders are at least $8bn. Over the combined company's customers they need to extract about $350 extra from each customer (plus interest) to make it work. And that's before the over-valued nature of the stock in the first place. Net book assets are about $16bn, so the $55bn paid means a goodwill figure for the merged company of around $40bn. That's $1,700 per customer, to be recovered by hook or by crook over the next few years.

I'm not sure why regulators ignore the simple reality that mergers deliver poor outcomes for consumers. Are they corrupt, or just incompetent?

[Efros]

competently corrupt.

[ecofeco]

Are they corrupt, or just incompetent?

Both. Was this a trick question? (I did upvote you)

[bombastic bob]

I have been putting off business cable with TWC because of this

I have been putting getting a 'business cable' connection with TWC because of this. Business expense of having a fixed IP DSL with lousy bandwidth is bad enough. monthly price more than doubles to get significantly better bandwidth with cable. I wouldn't doubt that business connections via the cable (which may be the only real option I have) are in ANY way covered by any FCC requirements prior to a merger. I can only imagine that the kinds of "boiler room support in India" I've gotten from the DSL company would be ANY BETTER after a TWC/Charter merger. And so I've tolerated the lousy DSL with a fixed IP address for way longer than I should have.

I guess some more 'wait and see' is in order. A typical TWC biz cable connection would cost around $150/month for 3Mbit up/down and a fixed IP address (or about $110 for 1.5mbit up/down). I'm sure it can only get WORSE, not better, after the merger.