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Verizon Looking To Buy Comcast or Charter, Says Report (nypost.com)
"Two well-placed sources" told The New York Post that Verizon is considering purchasing a big cable company to help it grow demand for its wireless data products. The source said the most likely targets would be "Charter or Comcast." New York Post reports: Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam may be getting ready to answer rival ATT's moves to buy DirecTV and Time Warner. To be sure, Verizon is not in talks with any cable company and may not ever make such a move. Still, McAdam has been under pressure recently with Verizon's deal to acquire Yahoo still a question mark months after two major hacks of the internet portal were revealed. The wireless giants operate on 4G wireless networks but are preparing to become a real alternative to the cable company with phone, TV and data services. To do that more effectively, the phone companies are pouring money into 5G connections that can work with cable systems to provide more stable coverage for consumers. McAdam has already given Wall Street analysts and investors big hints that he's looking at a combination with, say, a Charter Communications. In a mid-December meeting with Wall Street analysts, McAdam said a get-together between the two "makes industrial sense." Three weeks later, at CES, his comments to friends make it clear that cable distribution is a path he is exploring, perhaps more seriously than first thought. "For regulatory reasons, Verizon can't dominate in FiOS and cable, so it appears to have to set its sights on cable," an industry source said. Charter could be a seller under the right conditions, the source added, emphasizing that Malone and Charter CEO Tom Rutledge are just getting going on their vision for Charter.
If the shoe fits...
The bankers are promoting big mergers again, for there are really large fees in really large mergers, and there is an expectation that those mergers are more likely to receive minimal scrutiny with the new administration. Interesting times ahead.
Can we just split these suckers up before they get any bigger?
Two of the most despicable US companies, uniting to create even more power to gouge their customers.
The shares that exist are not enough to gain control if I remember. They were generated with the NBC merger. I say by Dish.
"we're looking to begin the dismantling of cable across the US and force the American public to use over-priced and highly unreliable wireless services with massive overages if they exceed their data caps, so we wanna buy Comcast or Charter to start that process."
FTFY
that that would be a very bad deal for the ordinary folks that elected him.
Great for exec's though.
Of all the things that are going to come out of the next 4 years the nonstop anti-consumer mergers (and the inevitable round after round of layoffs) is going to suck the hardest. This is pretty much why progressives fought to keep the $2 trillion in cash sitting offshore outside of American. Companies have pretty much admitted that almost none of that is going into R&D and instead they plan to spend it on M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions).
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Wait... Verizon is big enough to buy Comcast NBCUniversal?
You want to grow demand for your product? How about offering a good product at a reasonable price? It's just so crazy it might work! You know what consumers want. You just refuse to sell it to them.
Nooooo both of these corporations are twats!! Straight anti-competition....not cool :\
This is just the first of many mergers, net neutrality reg repeals, and escalations of surveillance. Welcome to the alternative timeline.
Have gnu, will travel.
I lived in an area where the option was Verizon FiOS or Comcast. I'm not sure how anyone would let this through (well, someone let through the NBC/Comcast merger, so I guess anything's possible).
Word verification: extort
Is Kabletown getting a new owner?
Digital Citizen
Verizon can't afford Comcast first off. Secondly, we need more competition in the telecom market not less. There's already collusion and illegal behavior as it is. Making the market smaller is a security risk to the US govt in my opinion. We need more telecoms that will truly compete with each other.
Verizon isn't buying Comcast. Verizon's market cap is roughly only 20% greater than Comcast's, and that's before Comcast's stock would get bid up on any credible news (this isn't credible). At best, it would be a merger of equals. At worst, Comcast buys Verizon in 2 years when current trend inverts the above.
Of all the things that are going to come out of the next 4 years the nonstop anti-consumer mergers (and the inevitable round after round of layoffs) is going to suck the hardest. This is pretty much why progressives fought to keep the $2 trillion in cash sitting offshore outside of American. Companies have pretty much admitted that almost none of that is going into R&D and instead they plan to spend it on M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions).
You mentioned "next 4 years" as if that were a Trump thing, but you've got it backwards.
Trump appears to be completely pro-consumer in his dealings with corporations; or in other words, a "populist" leader.
Recently he came out against the anti-consumer policies of big pharma, and intends to put pressure on them to reduce consumer costs overall.
He's met with several companies and suggested that there will be a tariff on off-shored work, with the result that several companies are pledging to keep work in America.
He's also convinced Boeing to reduce costs, which isn't a consumer benefit per-se, but it saves the government from being fleeced by Boeing a little.
It really appears that he's serious about making things better for the people. He's done a small amount before being elected, and appears to be trying to keep that campaign promise.
When the article about minimum H1B salaries of $100K, people were saying "well, he got one thing right".
Give him a chance.
He might actually make things better.
In the 80's, the government forced the breakup of "the phone company", AT&T/The Bell System. It's taken a little over 30 years to be put back together. Basically, you have AT&T, and Verizon. What do you want to bet, that in a few years, after they've gobbled up what's left of any independent services, that Verizon & AT&T will merge and we'll be back where we started...and will need to break them up again. For the most part, it's a duopoly with AT&T and Verizon...for the most part.
The FTC, FCC, and Justice Dept. will have a field day.
Verizon will never be able to buy Comcast.
More likely the real target is Charter, and muddying the waters by throwing Comcast's name in is just a bargaining tactic.
Verizon wants to do what AT&T tried to do in the 1990s, become a nationwide wireline provider. Didn't end so well for AT&T (real T, not former Bell South or whatever). Verizon is all about the northeast and mid-atlantic, where Comcast also has a big presence. But the rest of the country is covered by many different cable companies, and also a good bit of geography still has no cable at all. Hard to run national campaigns when most of the people watching aren't able to get your product.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
at least going by Verizon's previous shopping spree. They might be "altabad"! (also, I propose we verbify "altaba").
I suggest VerComChaSuck.
since the tail end of Obama's first term. Talking. No action. Same thing with Boeing. Lots of talk. No action. As soon as everybody's eyes are off it'll be BAU.
Obama at least cock blocked the AT&T/Comcast. Yeah, Trump's said he's against it. But at this point that's a little like saying you're against Hitler and Stalin. It's not a controversial stance.
I don't need to give Trump a chance. One look at the cavalcade of billionaires he's nominated for his cabinet (that guy who used to run Carls Jr is particularly bad) and I know where this is going. While I'm on the subject I've got friends who live and breath because of Obamacare. So far their 'alternative' is selling insurance across state lines; an idea that has been vetoed in the past because it just means the companies incorporate in whichever state has the weakest consumer protections. Meanwhile I get to go back to worrying about how the fuck I'm gonna afford Cobra if I change jobs.
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Nuff said.
Verizon wants home & business customers on wireless internet connections with data caps. Verizon 4G network is quickly becoming outdated. Verizon already dumped DSL service & FiOS (Verizon still owns the trademark) to Frontier. Comcast is a Cluster F of a bunch of small cable companies generally with different systems.
Historians advise shoot a few CEOs
The summary manages to mention someone named Malone, but only once and without saying who that person actually is.
Nice work there editor. You lost the subject but left in a reference to it. Maybe the inevitable dupe post will fix this.
Sig for hire.
Forget that. I want to know how you got the headline "Verizon looking to buy Comcast or Charter" when there is a line that says "To be sure, Verizon is not in talks with any cable company and may not ever make such a move."
WTF?
Lol fuck everyone but you right? Cause that's how the human race became so powerful, not through sharing and caring but raping and pillaging... You make me sick with your lack of empathy, hope you get cancer and die a slow painful bankrupting death.
Anon, just becuase.
,"Well you said that this is a merger of equals so I was wondering what the new company will be called?"
I worked for Alltel. Verizon bought us in 2008 -- excuse me, it was a "Merger of Equals" was the line the executives pushed within Alltel.
Lowell McAdam and all the top executives came down to speak to us in Little Rock at Alltel Arena (Now Verizon Arena.) There were -- I don't know -- 400 people in the room. They had multiple meetings for different overall groups. We were the internal technical side.
He gave a nice talk as well as the other executives and asked for audience questions. They got a few -- operations, job placement, HR items, and then THIS jewel: "So what is the new company going to be called?" Adams looks at him puzzled, the audience stirred confusingly, and I held my breath as I realized what he was actually trying to ask. The guy continued.
Adams pretty much looked at him with disdain and answered: "Verizon." After a second more of silence, he asked for any more questions.
What unconstitutional burden? The requirement to buy health insurance or pay a tax?
Have you even read the Constitution?
And by the way, the free market in health care and health insurance produced a system with high inflation and low levels of service.
But I suppose to some folks that's a feature and not a bug.
>>you make me sick with your lack of empathy, hope you get cancer and die a slow painful bankrupting death.
I sincerely hope this was supposed to be a joke otherwise I think you may need to brush up on your concept of empathy.
After all, we've got a Federal Trade Commisssion that will surely block such a merger on antitrust grounds. We've got an FCC that would block such a merger because it puts way too much content creation and content dissemination power in the hands of one corporation.
The FTC and FCC will act to protect the consumer. Right?
Right?
What's that chirping... sounds like crickets!