Comcast will announce a deal to acquire Time Warner Cable in an all-stock deal worth more than $45 billion that will unite the biggest and second largest cable television operators in the country, according to people briefed on the matter.
The surprise merger — expected to be announced on Thursday — is likely to bring to an end a protracted takeover battle that a smaller cable rival, Charter Communications, has been waging for Time Warner Cable, and will be the second major deal for Comcast in recent years to radically reshape the American media landscape.
Time Warner Cable shareholders will receive 2.875 shares of newly issued Comcast common stock for each of their shares. Based on Comcast’s closing price of $55.24 on Wednesday, that values each Time Warner Cable share at about $158.82 each.
The combination of the two is certain to attract antitrust scrutiny by regulators.
Gosh, you think? Comcast is the country's biggest cable company with about 24 million subscribers, Time Warner is number 2 with 13 million or so. This deal would give them close to half the total market and make them dwarf everyone else (#3 is Verizon FiOS with about 5 million). They would have no competitors.
I'm really hoping the FCC will destroy this deal. If they don't, they'll be able to effectively control the net as well as cable.
And yes, I'm one of the people affected by this deal. It's awful. What if Comcast/TWC decides "Hey, you have Netflix? Well, we own Hulu Plus, so if you want to use Netflix, we're going to charge you an extra $10 a month. You don't like it? Too bad." With net neutrality dead and now this deal, it's going to be a reaming for customers.
When you're getting what, $150, $200 a month from people and there's zero competition, why should you do anything other than drastically jack up rates?
Also, how many jobs will this cost? How many customer service and field techs are going to be laid off?
But the biggest problem is the hideous customer service records for both companies, or as the New Yorker's Nick Thompson reminds us:
Naah, this needs to burn.
When you're getting what, $150, $200 a month from people and there's zero competition, why should you do anything other than drastically jack up rates?
Also, how many jobs will this cost? How many customer service and field techs are going to be laid off?
But the biggest problem is the hideous customer service records for both companies, or as the New Yorker's Nick Thompson reminds us:
Breaking: the 4th most disliked company in America just bought the 6th most disliked. http://t.co/ABzO4MkY8T
— Nicholas Thompson (@nxthompson) February 13, 2014
Naah, this needs to burn.
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