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Time Warner, Comcast in Deal to Buy Adelphia
BlakeCaldwell writes "CNet reports that Time Warner and cable TV operator Comcast are set to pay $18 billion for bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications. The tentative deal, in cash and stock warrants, appears to beat off a potential rival bid by cable firm Cablevision Systems, which a separate source has said was preparing a $16.5 billion cash bid for Adelphia."
The local Adelphia franchise has sucked ever since they were Century Cable, and before that, Teleprompter. Typically a year or more wait for new channels to be added.
When I asked the senior citizen bill-taking drones at the front desk if their digital cable would work with TiVo, they both asked "What's TiVo?". When I asked for a manager, he *also* asked "What's TiVo?". This was in *2004*.
I told then-Century to piss off in 1998 and switched to DirecTV and haven't looked back.
When you are valued at 16 - 18 billion, or was this just an executive 'lets force a sale so we get nice big payoffs' deal?
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
... I see this as a good thing. I have never had comcast, but they always seem to get their new technology out the fastest when compared to the other cable companies, which I see as a good thing. What exactly don't people like about comcast?
The thing that worrys me about all this is what's going to happen to the local economy. I live about 20 miles from Adelphia's original home, Coudersport, PA. The buyout of Adelphia is probably going to result in the closing of all the local offices.
Until recently, Adelphia has been the big dog around here as employers go so the effect on the local job market is probably going to be pretty severe. 'course, we've been expecting it but now we get to see just how bad it's going to get.
Time's fun when you're having flies. - Kermit the Frog
... but it sure seems to have helped Adelphia's market value!
For those that don't know, they stopped showing soft porn a while back for "moral" reasons. Recently they started peddling pay-per-view hardcore, and it seems to be a winning strategy.
I'd like to add that, in the 9 years since I've graduated high school, the first one of my classmates to become a self-made millionaire did it by making it easier for people to find porn online. Any comments?
The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the corrections officer in me says, 'I love to make a grown man piss himself.'
I had Adelphia once. I have Comcast currently, and have had experiences with it in the past. I can honestly say that, if given the opportunity, I would conjure up dark forces, sell whatever remains of my soul at this point (as I've made some transactions in the past for things like Pearl Jam tickets), and bargain for Adelphia back. The quality difference between the two companies is hardly minimal. With Adelphia, I felt like more than just my 90 dollar a month payment. With Comcast, I pay more, get less, and feel as if I'm getting bent over and shafted in the process. For those are currently living in an area serviced by Adelphia, please let this merger fail.
There is a very strong argument that the climate for the megamerger trend was set in the Reagan era. Likewise the momentum of the AT&T break started well before Reagan. The nasty truth about economics is that we rarely see the full effects of a policy during the administration that passed the policy.
I agree that Libertarians routinely shoot themselves in the foot on the monopoly issue. They fail to see that the break up of the companies that dominated the economic climate was a necessary step for their economic revolution.
Socialists are a bit more clever in this regards. Socialists support the consolidation of industry in a small number of hands while trying at every turn to fan envy and resentment toward the owners. Once the monopolies have a lock on the market, they can use the political capital of wealth envy to step in and take over.
Libertariens should be the first (and sometimes are) the first to support anti trust actions.
I'm always amazed at people declaring "Comcast sucks" or "Time Warner sucks" or "Adelphia Sucks"
What people don't realize that these are very very large decentralized companies. The HQ of these companies have financial and technical expectations for small systems (usually a franchise in a city or county) The way these franchises operate vary greatly from one to another.
The degree of variance is great. Speaking about Comcast, its Arlington/Alexandria system is managed superbly and provides very good service, while its DC system can't find its ass with both hands.
Comcast generally will give a new acquired system 6 months to square itself away, and if it can't it will replace the management. This can lead to about a year until the subscribers see a change.
I think if you look at markets like LA, Dallas, SF, and Denver the take over by Comcast are largely positive things.