Time Warner Cable Buyout, round 2

[Trik'Stari]

So, it looks like the fight over Time Warner Cable is not over just yet, as Charter Communications is attempting to buy them for $55 Billion.

This needs to not happen, if anything, the top four internet service providers in the US each need to be broken into thirds.

 

 

Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N) is nearing an agreement to be acquired by smaller peer Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) for about $55 billion, combining the second and third largest U.S. cable operators, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

 

A deal would create a major rival to Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O), the biggest operator in the U.S. cable and broadband market, and marks a triumph for Charter, which was rejected by Time Warner Cable just last year.

News of another potential merger comes as the traditional pay television industry faces stagnating growth and new competition from over-the-web rivals offering individual services, like Netflix (NFLX.O), or packages of channels, such as Sony (6758.T). A larger company in this sector could achieve greater economies of scale, including in negotiations with programmers.

The cash-and-stock deal values Time Warner Cable at $195 per share, according to sources, and comes just one month after Comcast dropped its $45.2 billion merger agreement with Time Warner Cable, clinched in February 2014, over antitrust concerns.

Time Warner Cable shares closed at $171.18 on Friday. That is up substantially from the day before the original Comcast deal was announced last year, when the shares closed at $135.31.

 

I'm seriously asking myself, when will someone, ANYONE, step in and stop these ridiculously large corporate mergers? We have anti-monopoly laws for a reason.

 

 

Charter has agreed to pay Time Warner Cable a $2 billion break-up fee should their deal fall through, one of the sources said. Comcast did not have to pay a breakup fee when it ended its agreement to acquire Time Warner Cable last month.

Matthew Harrigan, an analyst with Wunderlich Securities, said he believes a Charter-Time Warner tie-up would have "a very high likelihood of passing muster with regulators" because the size of the combined company would not create the same anti-trust concerns regulators had about Comcast buying its smaller rival.

The questions, said Harrigan, were whether other bidders would emerge and how Charter shareholders will react to the offer price on Monday.

"You never know with these deals," he said. "This could morph into something different by (Tuesday) morning."

 

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker in San Francisco and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; additional reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra in New York and Leila Abboud in Paris; editing by Leslie Adler, G Crosse and Peter Henderson)

 

This stuff seriously needs to stop. Congress needs to come down as hard as they can on these companies, and force them ALL to break up into smaller companies,

and find a way to pass regulation requiring them to actually compete with one another. Instead of just pretending to. We all know it won't happen,

but it needs too.

 

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/05/25/twc-m-a-charter-communi-idINKBN0OA1FA20150525

[Comessy]

You're lucky to even have 2 ISPs there

 

Shaw has a monopoly over Alberta, and they keep increasing prices because there is no competition

[Trik'Stari]

Really? No one cares?

[nicklmg]

Repost I think. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/373703-charter-communications-to-buyout-time-warner-pending-fcc-approval/

[Vanderburg]

Their overall physical coverage isn't a problem, and it never was. Breaking up every ISP into a million pieces won't matter if they don't overlap. The problem is the lack of competition in markets as a whole. Let every ISP cover every city, then let me choose the best one. That's competition.

[Trik'Stari]

Repost I think. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/373703-charter-communications-to-buyout-time-warner-pending-fcc-approval/

Damn.

 

Someone can go ahead and close this then. Not sure how I missed that, considering I've been on all day lol