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Comcast Officially Gives Up On TWC Merger

Posted by Soulskill on from the keeping-them-small-enough-to-govern dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Confirming speculation from yesterday, Comcast announced this morning that its attempt to merge with Time Warner Cable has been terminated. The announcement was very brief, but indicated that regulatory pressure was the reason they killed the deal. CEO Brian Roberts said, "Today, we move on. Of course, we would have liked to bring our great products to new cities, but we structured this deal so that if the government didn't agree, we could walk away." The Washington Post adds, "The move by regulators to throw up roadblocks shows that the government has grown concerned about massive media conglomerates bigfooting rivals that are finding success by streaming content over the Internet, analysts said. And after years of approving a wave of mergers in the industry — including that of Comcast and NBC Universal in 2011 — federal officials are taking a new tone, they said."

4 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Comcast and Time Warner, a match made in . . . by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    CEO Brian Roberts said:

    but we structured this deal so that if the government didn't agree, we could walk away

    Translation: "We knew it was sketchy as hell, but hey, might as well give it a try! If they see through the BS, no harm done."

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  2. Re:Nice to know... by alphatel · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You can buy all of the government some of the time, and some of the government all of the time, but . . . it takes a lot of money to buy all of the government, all of the time. So that option is only available to oil companies and major defense contractors.

    And Google, And Apple, And ...

    --
    When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
  3. Re:Nice to know... by NotDrWho · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's nice to know that money can't always buy government representatives all the time.

    Just give them a little more time.

    2017 headline: Time-Warner/Comcast merger approved by a last-minute, late night amendment to the Veterans Administration funding bill.

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    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  4. Re:Comcast and Time Warner, a match made in . . . by Andrio · · Score: 5, Insightful

    CEO Brian Roberts said, "Today, we move on. Of course, we would have liked to bring our great products to new cities..."

    Hey Brian, guess what. You still can! Nobody is stopping you.

    Oh wait, what's that? You don't want to enter a market where there's any competition? I see.

    --
    The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.