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AT&T Broadband To Merge With Comcast Cable
quualudes was one of the many people to
submit the AT&T Broadband/Comcast merger. CNNfn has more of the story as well. 72$ billion is the cost. Wow. I wonder how this affects @Home. One alert reader also submitted the news that Comcast will evidently by launching a video gaming channel - more information will be coming in February 2002.
http://www.att.com/press/item/0,1354,4135,00.html
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... the article says Microsoft was involved financially... i would bet a whole dollar that the Redmond grip will be felt eventually....
The ATTBI service agreement was just about the most restricitve contract I've ever seen at an ISP. You weren't even allowed to post material that would be "considered embarrassing to a reasonable person"! Maybe this merger will make the agreement a little more sensible (and increase the bandwith cap while their at it too!)
The future isn't what it used to be.
According to the press release on Comcast, AT&T stockholders will receive 0.34 share of Comcast for each share of AT&T they own, which is currently worth about $13.07. AT&T stock is currently selling for about $16-17. Unless there's some radical realignment in stock prices (e.g. Comcast getting hit because of the debt they're acquiring along with the assets), that means there's either some major synergy going on or else the market thinks that the rest of AT&T is worth about $4 :-) Hope it's the former...
Maybe for you, but not for Cox@Home or Comcast@Home (or Rogers@Home) customers. We still have @Home service until sometime before Feb. 28th...
To within half a percent, pi seconds is a nanocentury. -- Tom Duff
It both sucks and blows. They rearranged the diverse public interest channels so they could give us, "AT&T 3 - Wicked Cool TV" Comprised of mainly ancient reruns including Gomer Pyle USMC, college football, a home shopping channel they already have on the cable lineup, and as for their "NEWS" well, it looks as if the high school drama club has made the big time.
This summer, I was disconnected on a Tuesday. I called them and after some hemming and hawing on their part, they finally agreed to reconnect me on Friday. I had to call a relative on the state comission that regulates cable TV to get them to move it up a day. I also had this relative get them to credit me for two weeks as recompense for disconnecting me in error. Yes, that's right, AT&T Broadband cut me off in error.
The picture quality on some channels is bad, the volume varies wildly between the satellite programming and locally inserted commercials.
You wait for at least 30 minutes while trying to get someone to answer a phone, oh, and their phone service! Once you've navigated phone menu hell, you listen to crappy music and hear some dweeb tell you to jot down the emergency phone number.
The emergency phone number presents you with exactly the same phone menu hell you get when you dial the regular phone number. And you still wait forever.
Thank Dobbs that the Boston cable TV system has been bought by a real cable TV company.
Someone else can use this here soapbox now.
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I've been with them from pretty much the beginning, 2 years, and while they started off rocky, they seem to have gotten they're stuff together. 768 / 128, which, by some standards, may not be all that great, it's always consistent.
"From of old, there are not lacking things that have attained Oneness." - Lao Tzu
AT&T has been aware that its core businesses are shrinking, have been aware for a long time. The big purchase of broadband interests was Michael Armstrong's plan to reposition the company.
But these businesses were purchased at the peak of the Bubble. Much debt accrued. And the Bubble burst. Hence the need to sell, in order to service the debt that is crushing the company. Hence also the need for AT&T to try to price services in a way that will minimize their loss per customer.
You're right, the company is in godawful shape, but if you understand the forces at work, it's not difficult to understand why.
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
Always a good time to see who owns what