Tuesday, April 26, 2016

More Antitrust

http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/25/media/charter-communications-time-warner-cable/

The article above states that the Department of Justice has just approved a merger between Charter, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. This merger will allow Charter to become the second largest cable provider in the country.

There are restrictions to Charter that include: no data caps or charging customers based on usage; and they cannot charge internet providers for connecting them with customers.

Why was this merger accepted? It seems to be pretty large and gives Charter a lot of power. Charter still need the approval of California's Public Utilities Commission in order for this deal to go through. Do you think this will be approved? What does this mean for the cable industry?

2 comments:

  1. I feel like it was accepted because it forced charter to undergo careful views from the government, and I'm sure that the government felt like it could regulate the new cable giant very well. I think that this just means that there will be fewer players in the cable industry. I doubt much will change besides seeing more Charter vans driving around now.

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  2. This is very interesting that DOJ approved this merger by Charter, when they rejected Comcast merger a year ago for "there was no cure to the anti-competitive risks presented by the merger, according to a department official."
    [http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/24/media/comcast-merger-dead/?iid=EL]
    As mentioned in the article, the same regulators who rejected Comcast merger were more positive about Charter deal since "Charter will be prohibited from putting data caps in place or charging customers based on usage." Are these conditions proposed by Charter enough to approve the merger? If this deal is big enough to affect one in six US households, do DOJ and FCC really think that this merger wouldn't become anticompetitive practices in the long run?
    This will be the merger of top 3, 4, and 7 companies that will soon become the biggest or second biggest in the country after Comcast. I think it will be interesting to see how this merger will change the industry in the near future.

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