Comcast to buy Time Warner Cable - 44.2 billion in stock

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Riskington said:
No, not at all. The "keep prices down" part is especially hilarious.


They rise more than once a year, every year. That happens now.
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an ISP is more than just the customer side. Comcast will take over the real estate, wire control and have a larger influence on the control of traffic to citizens. Thats where the problem is, by giving one company too much of the total US territory, you risk them having to much influence over the say of basic internet functions. At some point they will flex there "majority control" muscle and do something anti-consumer. We've already seen the pieces moving in regards to the internet turning into a tiered system, with a company having so much market share it would be much easier for them to force those style changes through.
 
Gotta love the state of ISP providers in the US when a shit company like TWC is something many people will settle for other than a merger with Comcast.
 
Belgium has 60 ISPs, but only two viable ones. To be fair, in recent years they kinda have their shit together but I think until 2010 we were plagued bandwidth caps of 10-25 GB/month. So yeah, there's no way anything good can come out of this.
 
This is nuts. I'm glad I moved to FiOS when they became available, but less competition in the market will only make the few remaining companies screw the customers.
 
Fuck.

Well, I can at least get a VPN set up to make Netflix and Hulu+ rock solid on my set-top box. This not-a-monopoly monopoly is so stupid, and we shouldn't have to have Google save our asses because of it.
 
Luckily I have never had to have Comcast or Time Warner.... I am for the most part pretty damn happy with Charter and they just upped their speeds... please dont sell out to someone like Comcast.


I certainly feel for you guys who might get screwed by this :(
 
ISPs/TV providers need trust-busted as it is, if this is allowed to go through I see no hope outside of local municipalities supporting smaller ISPs and Google Fiber spreading rapidly.
 
U2NUMB said:
Luckily I have never had to have Comcast or Time Warner.... I am for the most part pretty damn happy with Charter and they just upped their speeds... please dont sell out to someone like Comcast.


I certainly feel for you guys who might get screwed by this :(
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Charter tried to buy Time Warner and now they'll probably try to buy Cox and the other smaller ISPs to contend with the Comcast behemoth.
 
U2NUMB said:
Luckily I have never had to have Comcast or Time Warner.... I am for the most part pretty damn happy with Charter and they just upped their speeds... please dont sell out to someone like Comcast.


I certainly feel for you guys who might get screwed by this :(
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Charter's literally 10 miles out of my area. I'm stuck with Comcast as my only option and it pisses me off.

Oops, meant to edit that last post.
 
Ridiculous. I can't fathom the FCC allowing this to happen.

Then again, we're in this weird, "post-monopoly 80s" era where everything seems to be okay for these giant corporations, so it probably will.
 
Through the merger, Comcast will acquire Time Warner Cable’s approximately 11 million managed subscribers.  In order to reduce competitive concerns, Comcast is prepared to divest systems serving approximately 3 million managed subscribers. As such, Comcast will, through the acquisition and management of Time Warner Cable systems, net approximately 8 million managed subscribers in this transaction. This will bring Comcast’s managed subscriber total to approximately 30 million. Following the transaction, Comcast’s share of managed subscribers will remain below 30 percent of the total number of MVPD subscribers in the U.S. and will be essentially equivalent to Comcast Cable’s subscriber share after its completion of both the 2002 AT&T Broadband transaction and the 2006 Adelphia transaction.
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3 million subscribers may get dumped. That's either great news for them or really bad, depending on what alternate ISPs are in the neighborhood.
 
I really hope this gets shut down. I think the only benefit I could see as a consumer is that I'd finally be able to stream content online, which pales in comparison to the cost increases we as consumers will end up seeing if this does go through.

I'd much rather see Charter buy up TWC instead than letting Comcast get any bigger than it already is.
 
wienke said:
How is this getting through the FTC?

Even though I'm sure they'll just divest all of their unprofitable markets to even worse companies in terms of service and product offering.

Edit: I wish I had Comcast sadly...Consolidated Communications is really the worst.
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I find consolidated to be a lot nicer then comcast. Cheaper as well. Though the speed they offer does suck.
 
Hail Google, free me from the tyranny this springI I've already received my postcard in the mail about new fiberhoods and I'm getting in on it day one. Google be praised!
 
This will get approved. The 3m divesting is to get below the regulation limit. You'd be better served at layering in more rules on them. They already have net neutrality rules on them for another 7 years, they offer internet for 9.95 for lower income families... Get them to kill caps, other ties about what they can't do our gave to do. It's easier to put effort into that then hoping it will get blocked.

And vote in local elections for people who approve of municipal fiber
 
Australia's telecommunications industry has been a monopoly for nearly 20 years. Don't let it happen to you, America. It is literally the worst thing ever.
 
Mondy said:
It is literally the worst thing ever.
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NA5UxEk.gif
 
Do these telecoms even compete in the same area? It seems like there's usually only one option for cable in any given area.
 
So the FTC can still step in and stop this merger right? Cause this is absolutely insane and should never be allowed to happen.
 
Escape Goat said:
NA5UxEk.gif
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No really, you don't want this. Take it from someone who has seen the dark side of corporate politics in action, where the owner of the entire infrastructure can drag down an entire countries technical progress because they can turn plenty of dimes on the antiquated, obsolete network.

Progress dies and wallets are emptied with a disgraceful service delivered in return. It is take what you can and give nothing back. Any and every Aussie who reads this knows what I'm talking about.
 
Link.

"In today’s market, with national telephone and satellite competitors growing substantially," the letter reads, "with Google having launched its 1 GB Google Fiber offering in a number of markets across the country, and consumers having more choice of pay TV providers than ever before, Comcast believes that there can be no justification for denying the company the additional scale that will help it compete more effectively."
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Also:

while Comcast will control 19 of the 20 largest markets in the US.
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:/
 
GK86 said:
Comcast and TWC don't aren't really competing in any market. You don't, and never had, a choice between TWC and Comcast (as a consumer). Comcast is dropping 3 million subscribers. Comcast will ensure they only own 30% so the FCC doesn't tell them squat. We are all doomed.
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Aren't they competing as internet providers?
 
Two points:

1) I'm a TWC customer. I assure you, the fundamental laws of physics prevent service from getting any worse. Their DVRs are horrible (I gave up recently and just bought a TiVo instead), their customer service is friendly but criminally stupid, and their internet service is overpriced and under par.

2) There is no local competition anyway, doubly so if you live in a major city. If you're lucky your building is wired for multiple carriers, but most aren't. And if you live in the suburbs you (hopefully) can get FIOS/U-Verse, or choose between Dish and DirecTV if you don't like the local cable company.

IGSaint said:
Aren't they competing as internet providers?
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Same answer. You can't, right now, pick between the two. You're either in a Comcast market or a TWC market. Maybe a smaller company is around that can operate independently of them (e.g., RCN).
 
Krakn3Dfx said:
Ridiculous. I can't fathom the FCC allowing this to happen.

Then again, we're in this weird, "post-monopoly 80s" era where everything seems to be okay for these giant corporations, so it probably will.
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Chances are, the FCC is probably being run by people who used to be a part of these industries. At best, they'll say that they're "investigating" but they'll do nothing.
 
xsarien said:
Two points:

1) I'm a TWC customer. I assure you, the fundamental laws of physics prevent service from getting any worse. Their DVRs are horrible (I gave up recently and just bought a TiVo instead), their customer service is friendly but criminally stupid, and their internet service is overpriced and under par.

2) There is no local competition anyway, doubly so if you live in a major city. If you're lucky your building is wired for multiple carriers, but most aren't. And if you live in the suburbs you (hopefully) can get FIOS/U-Verse, or choose between Dish and DirecTV if you don't like the local cable company.



Same answer. You can't, right now, pick between the two. You're either in a Comcast market or a TWC market. Maybe a smaller company is around that can operate independently of them (e.g., RCN).
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Well yeah if you put it that way, they don't compete with each other but that doesn't mean they couldn't compete with each other in the future. By being bought out that takes out a potential competitor. I don't know anti-monopoly laws so I'm just throwing around ideas here.
 
Suddenly I'm that much happier that Brighthouse is Large enough in the SouthEast to cover most areas and is my current ISP.

No contracts are a plus x.x even if the prices are higher than conventionally so.
 
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