Comcast and Time Warner want desperately to merge. But not everyone is so thrilled. In fact, lawyers representing the US Dept. of Justice’s antitrust division is trying to block the merger from ever seeing the light of day.
These attorneys are investigating the 45.2 billion dollar merger and are concerned this will harm customers as well as the entire cable industry. If the deal is blocked, it would hurt Comcast more. They could kiss the New York and Los Angeles market goodbye. Merging with Time Warner would help Comcast ‘compete’ with satellite and Web companies as well as rival cable companies. The decision will be made by Renita Hesse, an assistant attorney general for the antitrust division. Her and her colleges in the justice department are going to outside parties in to build evidence against this merger. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is also weighing in on the merger, but they haven’t revealed if they are for or against the merger.
I agree with the antitrust division on this one. And I’m glad someone in government is fighting this merger. If this merger goes on, a lot of businesses can go belly up and many innocent workers could lose their jobs. Your monthly cable bill will skyrocket. The only people this merger will help are the executives of Comcast and Time Warner. Comcast believes if the merger fails, it would harm their chance to take over the two biggest markets in America. But Comcast has a lot to fall back on, so it’s hard for me to have too much sympathy for them. Renita Hesse and others in the antitrust division should convince the FCC that this is a bad idea and should be blocked. There’s an old saying: When a company is too big to fail, they’re too big to care. Wouldn’t that apply to this potential merger?