ToriElectra 291 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Sorry about that. I'm not trying to be creepy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHarry 718 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/whats-behind-time-warners-response-to-charters-offer/ What’s Behind Time Warner Cable’s Response to Charter’s Offer By STEVEN M. DAVIDOFF Charter has proposed to acquire Time Warner Cable for a price of $132.50 a share, consisting of $83 in cash and $49.50 in Charter stock. Charter went public with its offer after negotiations with Time Warner stalled. Time Warner Cable has not rejected Charter’s overtures, but it has insisted that Charter’s offer is way too low. In Time Warner Cable’s statement announcing its board’s rejection of the Charter offer, Time Warner Cable’s chairman and chief executive, Robert D. Marcus, stated that “our board is open to a transaction with Charter at a price of $160 per TWC share, consisting of $100 in cash and $60 per share of Charter common stock.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jterry 43 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Boom Bloomberg TV @BloombergTV 8m BREAKING: Comcast said to agree to pay $159 a share for Time Warner Cable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelson R. 560 Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 Boom Beat me to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2878 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 This won't go well with the FTC. It just won't. And I get a feeling that this will go over like AT&T and T-Mobile's failed hookup bid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viper550 268 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Can anyone say... Comcast Sportsnet Los Angeles? I don't think this is going to work. At all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronQ 259 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Can anyone say... Comcast Sportsnet Los Angeles? I don't think this is going to work. At all. Or CSN Carolinas, and I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoadStar 363 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 This won't go well with the FTC. It just won't. And I get a feeling that this will go over like AT&T and T-Mobile's failed hookup bid. Exactly my thought, down to the exact example I was thinking of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A3N 996 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 It could work, if they spin off some of the cable systems they already have or will acquire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvjay 6 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Can Comcast own stations like KNBC and WNBC in markets where they control the cable systems as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike91 66 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Can Comcast own stations like KNBC and WNBC in markets where they control the cable systems as well? They already do. WCAU is just one example of many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2878 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Exactly my thought, down to the exact example I was thinking of. Nor will it go over well in Tom Wheeler's FCC, which seems to be a bit more open to anti-consolidation beliefs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronQ 259 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Can Comcast own stations like KNBC and WNBC in markets where they control the cable systems as well? Apparently so, look at Philly (WCAU), Chicago (WMAQ), San Francisco (KNTV), Harford (WVIT and NECN), D.C. (WRC), and the Boston area (NECN) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABC 7 Denver 1552 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Looking forward to those soon-to-be "Time Warner Cable News" channels to be rebranded again. And New York Nonstop returns from the dead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvjay 6 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Apparently so, look at Philly (WCAU), Chicago (WMAQ), San Francisco (KNTV), Harford (WVIT and NECN), D.C. (WRC), and the Boston area (NECN) Are they the only cable outlet in the market? I don't know these cities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmkcool2002 7 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 1. Shocked by this deal because I knew Comcast could afford doing this deal. I just didn't think they would be balsy enough to actually go through it with all the government implications. But I guess Comcast assumes that this deal will be approved since the FCC has been really relaxed under the Obama administration when it comes to mergers in the media world. I'm sure they'll also be willing to give up some subs to Charter or some minority owners who will protest this deal in order to make sure this deal goes through. 2. Is Comcast really ready to take on the exorbitant Lakers/Dodgers contracts? How do they pay for all those costs? It'll also be interesting to see what happens to NY1 and if it launches a new strategy which Comcast puts forth across the U.S. (local news network) or if it ends up being put under NBC 4's newsroom and goes into obscurity. One thing I would suggest: Don't let go of Pat Kiernan!! 3. How can Comcast use the new Lakers/Dodgers rights as well as the other franchises which it owns regional rights to in order to enhance NBC Sports Network? 4. How bad will this set back Apple TV which was in negotiations with TWC to add TWC channels to their software? 5. Is John Malone finished with trying to build up Charter? 6. Joe Flint of LA Times points out that Lakers/Dodgers channels now have more leverage with NBCU arsenal behind it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skbl17 188 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Playing devil's advocate here: this is not like the AT&T/T-mobile merger that (thankfully) failed. Comcast and Time Warner Cable have separate regional monopolies; their service areas do not overlap. As such, from a geographic standpoint, this merger would be on better ground than the AT&T one. Also, Comcast generally does a better job with their infrastructure than Time Warner Cable, although their broadband caps are a sore sticking point. Regarding TWC's media outlets, I have always been a fan of the now-TWC News family, and would like to see that expanded to some of Comcast's markets if this merger is successful. It should be noted that Time Warner outlets (CNN, CN, TNT, etc.) are not Time Warner Cable outlets, as the two are completely separate corporations. Of course, this is not such a good idea; Comcast is big enough as it is, it doesn't need to get bigger. Also, as a Comcast customer, I do not support this move AT ALL. Comcast is already spending a ridiculous amount of money on a NEW skyscraper to supplement their existing one in Philadelphia; add on the $45 billion they'll spend to take on TWC, and our bills will go through the roof! If they must merge, Comcast should spin off some of its markets. I would like to see Atlanta join the Cox Communications fold (Cox is HQ'd here, after all) if that were to happen. Also, the FCC has shown that it is willing to impose restrictions on Comcast in exchange for approval of its acquisitions: remember the NBCU deal? Yeah, Comcast is subject to the FCC's net neutrality rules until 2018, regardless of what happens in the courts or Congress. I would like to see what conditions would be imposed on Comcast in the unlikely event that this merger is approved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jero23 105 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Playing devil's advocate here: this is not like the AT&T/T-mobile merger that (thankfully) failed. Comcast and Time Warner Cable have separate regional monopolies; their service areas do not overlap. As such, from a geographic standpoint, this merger would be on better ground than the AT&T one. Also, Comcast generally does a better job with their infrastructure than Time Warner Cable, although their broadband caps are a sore sticking point. Regarding TWC's media outlets, I have always been a fan of the now-TWC News family, and would like to see that expanded to some of Comcast's markets if this merger is successful. It should be noted that Time Warner outlets (CNN, CN, TNT, etc.) are not Time Warner Cable outlets; as the two are completely separate corporations. Of course, this is not such a good idea; Comcast is big enough as it is, it doesn't need to get bigger. Also, as a Comcast customer, I do not support this move AT ALL. Comcast is already spending a ridiculous amount of money on a NEW skyscraper to supplement their existing one in Philadelphia; add on the $45 billion they'll spend to take on TWC, and our bills will go through the roof! If they must merge, Comcast should spin off some of its markets. I would like to see Atlanta join the Cox Communications fold (Cox is HQ'd here, after all) if that were to happen. Also, the FCC has shown that it is willing to impose restrictions on Comcast in exchange for approval of its acquisitions: remember the NBCU deal? Yeah, Comcast is subject to the FCC's net neutrality rules until 2018, regardless of what happens in the courts or Congress. I would like to see what conditions would be imposed on Comcast in the unlikely event that this merger is approved. Don't hold your breath on the Atlanta spin off of Comcast. They know that Atlanta is a rapidly growing market and in the top 10, so you can let that pipe dream wither. They'll likely spin off a cluster of their smaller and mid-sized markets nationwide before they drop one of their major ones like Atlanta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skbl17 188 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Don't hold your breath on the Atlanta spin off of Comcast. They know that Atlanta is a rapidly growing market and in the top 10, so you can let that pipe dream wither. They'll likely spin off a cluster of their smaller and mid-sized markets nationwide before they drop one of their major ones like Atlanta. I remember when TWC and Comcast swapped markets like Houston and Dallas back in 2007 after the Adelphia acquisitions. Apparently, TWC and Comcast had a partnership in markets like Houston and Dallas, and when the Adelphia purchase happened, the partnerships were dissolved; TWC took Dallas and Comcast took Houston. Anything that said "Time Warner Cable" in Houston was switched to Comcast, and vice versa in Dallas. Thus, while it's unlikely that Comcast's Atlanta operations are spun off, there's a very, very remote nonzero possibility that it could happen. If this goes through though, I would like to see what they'll do to our cable bills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess 1110 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Gee, I think HulkieD's very happy you told everybody where he works... Well, not really, but from working the job I can tell good ownership from bad. We've been seeing traffic pick up and the snowstorm due tomorrow drew the largest crowds I've seen - and I've been there for a decade or so. (Benefits, man. Benefits.) Also, Supervalu (the idiots that used to own us) had a draconian social media policy. That said, I'm in the job market now... and yes, there's a chance I might have bigger conflicts of interest. We'll see. As for Comcast.... wow. I wasn't expecting them to do a full deal to get TWC. I was thinking they'd split the markets - Charter'd get some, Comcast'd get some. This gives them control of high-profile broadcast stations in NY and LA and the cable wiring them to homes. While they don't really overlap in markets - a deal with TWC some years back gave them control of the former Urban Cableworks franchise, so Comcast pretty much owns this area cablewise - it's still a huge addition. It's a major risk, coming so soon after they got NBCU. The DOJ is going to have a long look at this. As for my feelings on Comcast, well, I always found them pretty decent, surprisingly. They've certainly contributed to the city. I know AtlantaTV is complaining about the skyscraper, but I don't know how much Comcast is actually paying to build it. Plus, it's expected to bring a lot of jobs to the city since they're focusing this on tech startups. A lot of people aren't aware of this but Philly is growing into more of a technology hub - there's a bunch of important web firms here. It's very significant that Comcast still has its global headquarters here and not at 30 Rock, a building which they now own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess 1110 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 I remember when TWC and Comcast swapped markets like Houston and Dallas back in 2007 after the Adelphia acquisitions. Apparently, TWC and Comcast had a partnership in markets like Houston and Dallas, and when the Adelphia purchase happened, the partnerships were dissolved; TWC took Dallas and Comcast took Houston. Anything that said "Time Warner Cable" in Houston was switched to Comcast, and vice versa in Dallas. Thus, while it's unlikely that Comcast's Atlanta operations are spun off, there's a very, very remote nonzero possibility that it could happen. If this goes through though, I would like to see what they'll do to our cable bills. Once upon a time, Philadelphia was divided into four cable zones. Rollins Cablevision was given one slice, Greater Media Cable another slice, locally-owned Wade Cablevision got another slice, and Comcast got the last one, for the far Northeast. Rollins was bought out by Heritage Cablevision shortly after launching service... and Heritage quickly bailed, selling to Comcast. Greater Media got out of the cable business around 2000. Wade Cablevision ultimately became Time Warner Cable of Philadelphia, and when Adelphia was broken up, that was one of the systems TWC swapped with Comcast, giving them all four zones of the city. They had a similar thing with AT&T Broadband before they bought the whole thing. Down Wildwood, the cable system was TKR, then TCI, then AT&T. It was cool because they got channels faster than Comcast would and had things Comcast didn't have. Plus they wouldn't blow out the last segment of each half-hour of Headline News for boring local interviews, called Comcast Newsmakers. So you can imagine my horror when I went down in 2001, turned on HLN (which had relaunched the day we came down)... and to my horror, saw Comcast Newsmakers. Turned out AT&T and Comcast decided to do some system swaps. Basically the entire Philly metro is Comcast. Or, if you're lucky, Fios. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skbl17 188 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 As for my feelings on Comcast, well, I always found them pretty decent, surprisingly. They've certainly contributed to the city. I know AtlantaTV is complaining about the skyscraper, but I don't know how much Comcast is actually paying to build it. Plus, it's expected to bring a lot of jobs to the city since they're focusing this on tech startups. A lot of people aren't aware of this but Philly is growing into more of a technology hub - there's a bunch of important web firms here. It's very significant that Comcast still has its global headquarters here and not at 30 Rock, a building which they now own. It does sound like I'm complaining, but if this merger goes through and the "Innovation Center" gets built, you know who's ultimately going to have to pay for a large part of it, despite any tax breaks or divestitures: Comcast customers like me. Comcast is bad enough with their outdated cable TV infrastructure (yeah, there's X1, but it's quite buggy,) and internet data caps. I don't take rate hikes lightly, so of course I'm going to be very skeptical about anything the company chooses to spend money on that does not benefit most of its customers or its infrastructure in some way because of its unique position in a field with few (or no) competitors. The new facility will be good news for Philadelphia, I'm sure; the area is moving along quite well economically, and I wish the city well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TennTV1983 742 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Free Press has made a pre-emptive strike against the deal: http://www.freepress.net/node/105771 Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron made the following statement: "In an already uncompetitive market with high prices that keep going up and up, a merger of the two biggest cable companies should be unthinkable. This deal would be a disaster for consumers and must be stopped. "This deal would give Comcast control of more than a third of the U.S. pay-TV market and more than half of the U.S. triple-play market for video, voice and Internet service. Comcast will have unprecedented market power over consumers and an unprecedented ability to exert its influence over any channels or businesses that want to reach Comcast's customers. "No one woke up this morning wishing their cable company was bigger or had more control over what they could watch or download. But that — along with higher bills — is the reality they'll face tomorrow unless the Department of Justice and the FCC do their jobs and block this merger. Stopping this kind of deal is exactly why we have antitrust laws. "Americans already hate dealing with the cable guy — and both these giant companies regularly rank among the worst of the worst in consumer surveys. But this deal would be the cable guy on steroids — pumped up, unstoppable and grasping for your wallet." I'm on the side of "if they're going to merge, they should divest some of their smaller market operations in the process". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHarry 718 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Don't hold your breath on the Atlanta spin off of Comcast. They know that Atlanta is a rapidly growing market and in the top 10, so you can let that pipe dream wither. They'll likely spin off a cluster of their smaller and mid-sized markets nationwide before they drop one of their major ones like Atlanta. They said they are prepared to divest up to 3 million subscribers. Comcast wants to keep the east coast footprint so they are keeping New York and North Carolina. Who gets thrown under the bus? In another article I read Comcast doesn't really want to be in LA ... Map showing cable provider footprints: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/01/12/picture-1000-words-us-cable-provider-map/78308/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmkcool2002 7 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 What do you think goes through first? Sinclair's deal with Albritton or this deal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.