Update: Late on Thursday, Comcast decided to abandon its $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable that they have been working on for more than one year. Multiple reports are saying the decision will be announced on Friday. This is another tremendous victory for the movement for a free and open Internet, coming on the heels of the successful effort to ensure net neutrality by treating the Internet as a common carrier where there can be no discrimination. There is still a lot of work to do to improve the speed and quality of the Internet, expand access to rural and poor communities, as well as increase competition among providers including expanding municipal Internet. But, this is another important victory for the Open Internet movement.
Reports that the agency will designate the $45 billion deal for a hearing could signal a rejection of the ill-advised merger
WASHINGTON — According to reports in the Wall Street Journal and Politico, Federal Communications Commission staff may be prepared to recommend that Comcast’s proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable be designated for a hearing. Such a move would put the merger request in the hands of an administrative law judge, who would conduct a thorough inquiry into the public-interest benefits of the proposed merger, if any.
In formal legal terms a hearing designation merely means that the FCC cannot approve the proposed $45 billion merger at this time without first conducting such a hearing. In practical terms however, this type of preliminary decision generally spells the end for the deal because of the difficulty applicants face to make their case in such proceedings.
Today’s report follows a Bloomberg News report last week that regulators at the Department of Justice were skeptical of the deal as well.
Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood made the following statement:
“If the news from the FCC is true, it would mean that Internet users can breathe a sigh of relief. Designating the deal for a hearing would make Comcast and Time Warner Cable go through a lengthy evidentiary procedure. That’s a very high hurdle to clear in its own right, and a huge barrier to overcome for a disastrous deal like this one, which has no real public interest benefits to show.
“The FCC seems to have heard the nearly one million Americans who have told Washington that the proposed merger helps only the people in the executive suites of Comcast and Time Warner Cable. These executives failed to see the reality that was plain to all of the deal’s many opponents. Giving so much control over our communications system to one company — especially one with a track record of spiraling prices, terrible customer service and blocking Internet content — would be a terrible mistake.
“Americans don’t need a bigger Comcast; they need more choices for affordable and open broadband services nationwide. The rejection of this merger would reflect the FCC and the DOJ’s renewed commitment to competition and consumer protection. The tens of millions of dollars that Comcast has spent on bankers, lawyers and lobbyists to push this ill-advised merger would have been better spent improving customer service and offering affordable high-speed fiber-to-the-home.”
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