Comcast To Buy Time Warner Cable In $44.2 Billion All-Stock Deal

symbolset writes "CNBC and many others report Time Warner Cable has agreed to be acquired by Comcast for $44.2 billion. From the article: 'The agreement comes more than eight months after Charter Communictions and Liberty Media made their first foray to try and negotiate a deal to acquire Time Warner Cable (a story broken by CNBC) and follows months of conversations between Time Warner Cable and Comcast about the prospect of a Comcast acquisition of the company. '"

Comments

Remember kids

[Dunbal]

We need to cap your internet usage and charge you usage fees as well as bandwidth fees because, oh god, it's so hard to make money in the telecommunication business we just can't seem to stop having enough money to buy each other out. By the way, we're going to increase your monthly flat rate bill a good 10% again this year because hey, those "Friends" reruns sure are getting expensive to er, broadcast.

Re:Antitrust lawsuit?

[rudy_wayne]

I don't think there area any areas where both TW and Comcast operate. So it won't change the number of choices for anyone.

This is true.

You will just replace one shitty company with an even shittier company.

increase of rates

[nurb432]

Well, they have to pay for the purchase somehow, and you cant expect them to take it out of current profits/bank accounts.

Re:Antitrust lawsuit?

[coastal984]

No, it won't eliminate consumer choice because most often Cable companies have a government-authorized monopoly on a geographic area.

What this will do is create a powerhouse negotiator with the content companies as they would represent about 1/3 of all cable households. Who really hates this deal is those content companies, and the satellite companies. If allowed, Comcast will have the power to negotiate substantially lower TV subscription costs than Direct/Dish, and take money out of the content producer/broadcasters coffers.

The other side is internet... but I'm not sure that this is going to affect their DSL/FIOS competitors that much. Maybe I'm wrong on this, but I think this is likely a secondary concern that lags behind the concerns of the networks/sat providers.

Re:ogahdno

[Chas]

Agreed!

I love my Time Warner service. Comcast will find a way to ruin it.

At what point do we begin to want Government Interference?

Right about now actually.

There's the whole "localized monopoly" thing. But this beast is just about the sole provider for a huge swath of the US now, and people's ability to choose providers is in jeopardy.