U.S. Preparing To Block AOL / Time-Warner Deal

Tuzanor writes: "Yahoo! is reporting that government officials are preparing to block the AOL-Time Warner deal if an agreement over Internet access isn't made in 2 weeks." I'd feel a lot better about this merger if local cable (like Time-Warner has such a big hand in) itself faced tougher competition than it does right now.

Comments

In Other News Around the World ...

[Aaron M. Renn]

... Andover.Net received permission to acquire open source oriented slashdot.org for an undisclosed sum in stock and cash despite Andover.Net's already substantial web site holdings. No FTC concessions required.

... VA Linux received permission to acquire the combined Andover.Net/slashdot conglomerate, adding these web sites to its linux.com and sourceforge holdings to create the dominant open source web company. Note that all these companies are for-profit, investor owned entities. No FTC investigation or concessions required.

... Red Hat acquires Cygnus Solutions, creating the dominant open source software company and establishing ownership over the development team for the critical GCC development toolchain. No investigation or concessions required.

I think it's odd that we see all these open-sourcers jumping all over corporate mergers when their own small section of the software world is dominated by a handful of players, especially Red Hat and VA. Best to first take the log out of your own eyes, boys.

Local cable operations

[Jeffrey Baker]

I'd feel a lot better about cable operations if the people owned their own cable plants. That is, I believe it would be ideal for the citizens of a city to own and operate the cable television, telephone, and electric facilities in their city via their local government.

In such a system, open access would be the norm. Service providers would have equal access to the "other end" of the cables running into every home, and the citizen who was served by that cable would make the decision to hook it up to one or the other.

Hopefully in such a system, we wouldn't have pointlessly diverse content delivery systems (coax, twisted pair, circuit switched, packet switched, etc.), but instead be blessed with an all-fiber network that runs right into the point of delivery.

Doesn't anyone else think that the people should empower themselves this way?

The most obvious reason to block merger

[RayChuang]

Folks,

The reason why the FTC may block the America Online/Time-Warner is more than just cable modem access.

The big issue here is the fact that between the resources of AOL and Time-Warner, they would create the world's most powerful corporation in terms of control of mass media.

If you look at the combined assets of AOL and Time-Warner, the result is ownership of a very sizeable fraction of the means to create media content AND distribute it. AOL is the world's largest Internet Service Provider (no contest), especially with their purchases of CompuServe, Netscape, ICQ, WinAmp, MapQuest and a few other Internet companies. Time-Warner has a massively powerful presence in movie and television program production, most of the influential cable TV channels (CNN Networks, HBO Networks, Turner Broadcasting), their own TV network, ownership of many cable systems in the USA, a book division, a major periodicals division, and a major producer of popular music.

Is it small wonder why if AOL and Time-Warner merged it would have made the company created by the fictional Elliot Carver from the James Bond movie TOMORROW NEVER DIES a very distinct a frightening reality? AOL Time Warner could have wielded the power to have a major say in what we see in the movie theatres and TV, what books and periodicals we read, what web sites we can visit and what music we can hear. Talk about potential abuse of First Amendment rights! (shudder)

credit to Gov't on this one

[jefe289]

Hey people....

We have a tendency to criticize quickly and then forget to complement. I think most of us agree that unless competition is protected, the merger should not go through.

I know we squabble about the issues surrounding the periphery, but lets please thank those deserving the credit for doing their job correctly: preserving justice and freedom.

Re:Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad thin

[AntiNorm]

The US is a free enough country that anyone can start their own AOL, Microsoft, Time/Warner or whatever.

True, but there's the (significant) chance that you either won't have enough of a customer base as compared to the Big Corporations to stay in business, or that you will just be bought out by one of said Corporations. That is one of the big reason why large corporate monopolies are bad -- they have a tendency to squash potential competition.

If you let the Government push around the companies you don't like, soon they'll start pushing around the companies you do like.

Or, as in more and more recent cases, the company will push the government around. For example, the MPAA et al buying the DMCA.

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