Verizon Looking To Buy Comcast or Charter, Says Report (nypost.com) 82
"Two well-placed sources" told The New York Post that Verizon is considering purchasing a big cable company to help it grow demand for its wireless data products. The source said the most likely targets would be "Charter or Comcast." New York Post reports: Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam may be getting ready to answer rival ATT's moves to buy DirecTV and Time Warner. To be sure, Verizon is not in talks with any cable company and may not ever make such a move. Still, McAdam has been under pressure recently with Verizon's deal to acquire Yahoo still a question mark months after two major hacks of the internet portal were revealed. The wireless giants operate on 4G wireless networks but are preparing to become a real alternative to the cable company with phone, TV and data services. To do that more effectively, the phone companies are pouring money into 5G connections that can work with cable systems to provide more stable coverage for consumers. McAdam has already given Wall Street analysts and investors big hints that he's looking at a combination with, say, a Charter Communications. In a mid-December meeting with Wall Street analysts, McAdam said a get-together between the two "makes industrial sense." Three weeks later, at CES, his comments to friends make it clear that cable distribution is a path he is exploring, perhaps more seriously than first thought. "For regulatory reasons, Verizon can't dominate in FiOS and cable, so it appears to have to set its sights on cable," an industry source said. Charter could be a seller under the right conditions, the source added, emphasizing that Malone and Charter CEO Tom Rutledge are just getting going on their vision for Charter.
NYSE:EVIL (Score:2, Insightful)
If the shoe fits...
On Jan 20th, let the mergers begin! (Score:2, Insightful)
The bankers are promoting big mergers again, for there are really large fees in really large mergers, and there is an expectation that those mergers are more likely to receive minimal scrutiny with the new administration. Interesting times ahead.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
No bounds of hypocrisy (Score:5, Insightful)
Two of the most despicable US companies, uniting to create even more power to gouge their customers.
Re: (Score:2)
This would suck epically. We JUST got FIOS here in Comcast country, and there is finally competition.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeppers. Cut the Comcast cord a few hours ago. Gig up and Gig down. :)
[John]
Re: (Score:2)
Wow! I thought I was living the good life going from the old 25/5 to 150/150...
Re: (Score:2)
I just wanted to thank you for the irony. First smile of the day.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Does Verizon cap FIOS? Here there is no hard cap, though the sales guy said that if you end up being in the top 0.xxx% of users, they would likely cancel your contract (or push you into a business tier). DSL reports seems to indicate that this number is around 4TB/month. For me I guess the discussion is academic since I don't come anywhere near 4TB.
Re: (Score:2)
No data cap per the FAQ.
Re: (Score:2)
fios was sold to frontier on the west.
also it always was cable all the way. with very short runs of fiber. the actual layency was much worse than my trusty dsl+ when I lived one block from the end point.
it baffles me that this thread is full of people claiming their gig up and gig down with no mention of latency.
Re: (Score:2)
Here in the Philly area my latency went way, way down with FIOS vs cable. Pings to google.com are less than 15ms. I'm not a gamer so I'm not sure if this is a decent test or not, but I've seen an improvement over the service I had with Comcast.
Re: (Score:1)
Their new slogan: "Can we screw you now?"
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
That would be Comcast and Charter, or TWC, but they're out of the picture now. Actually, AT&T has to rank down there as well, with their shitty service. All of them suck far worse than Verizon.
Translation: (Score:5, Insightful)
"we're looking to begin the dismantling of cable across the US and force the American public to use over-priced and highly unreliable wireless services with massive overages if they exceed their data caps, so we wanna buy Comcast or Charter to start that process."
FTFY
Re: (Score:1)
T has been ambiguous on telecom mergers. I don't have any links, but I remember him pandering to both the non-intervention angle, and the oligopolies=low-competition angle.
We'll have to wait and see.
Re: Even Trump can see (Score:3)
Now that is funny. Trump has no idea what the common man wants or needs. He does know how to tell people he knows what they need, but if you think an administration loaded with bankers (4 Goldman execs!) and other rich people is going to do anything for the lttle guy you're delusional.
Goddammitsomuch.jpg (Score:5, Informative)
Because of Trump? You've got that backwards... (Score:5, Insightful)
Of all the things that are going to come out of the next 4 years the nonstop anti-consumer mergers (and the inevitable round after round of layoffs) is going to suck the hardest. This is pretty much why progressives fought to keep the $2 trillion in cash sitting offshore outside of American. Companies have pretty much admitted that almost none of that is going into R&D and instead they plan to spend it on M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions).
You mentioned "next 4 years" as if that were a Trump thing, but you've got it backwards.
Trump appears to be completely pro-consumer in his dealings with corporations; or in other words, a "populist" leader.
Recently he came out against [breitbart.com] the anti-consumer policies of big pharma, and intends to put pressure on them to reduce consumer costs overall.
He's met with several companies and suggested that there will be a tariff on off-shored work, with the result that several companies are pledging to keep work in America.
He's also convinced Boeing to reduce costs [businessinsider.com], which isn't a consumer benefit per-se, but it saves the government from being fleeced by Boeing a little.
It really appears that he's serious about making things better for the people. He's done a small amount before being elected, and appears to be trying to keep that campaign promise.
When the article about minimum H1B salaries of $100K, people were saying "well, he got one thing right".
Give him a chance.
He might actually make things better.
They've been talking about the $100k salary thing (Score:3, Insightful)
Obama at least cock blocked the AT&T/Comcast. Yeah, Trump's said he's against it. But at this point that's a little like saying you're against Hitler and Stalin. It's not a controversial stance.
I don't need to give Trump a chance. One look at the cavalcade of billionaires he's nominated for his cabinet (that guy who used to run Carls Jr i
Re: (Score:1)
Trump "says" a lot of things.
But the people he's proposed to appoint to the FCC are very "pro-business" and have already stated that they plan to quickly eliminate FCC net-neutrality and consumer protraction regulations.
A Verizon and Comcast/Charter merger would probably be considered very favorably.
He's "draining the swamp" by appointing alligators to key positions. Yeah, that's going to work.
Re:Because of Trump? You've got that backwards... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
His transition plan for the FCC includes removing all consumer protection functionality from the FCC. The Trump administration opposes Net Neutrality. In the matter being discussed here, his position is clear.
WTF (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'd be curious to know what the propeller-heads who study long-term valuation think of Comcast NBCUniversal.
I'm not one of those people, but I have this idea that of that combo-package, NBC has the best long-term business model, Universal second and Comcast third.
Comcast's primary value *now* is its local monopolies on broadband and cable television, and the cable part isn't an actual monopoly if you take DirectTV and Dish into account as viable competitors for most households. But long-term, doesn't the
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder how well NBC's books are actually doing.
The Olympics have turned out to be a bad investment for NBC. They paid 12 Billion [bloomberg.com]. But: “We wake up someday and the ratings are down 20 percent,” the chief executive officer of NBCUniversal said at a conference. “If that happens, my prediction would be that millennials had been in a Facebook bubble or a Snapchat bubble and the Olympics have come, and they didn’t know it.” They're blaming it on everything but the fact that some pe
Re:WTF (Score:4, Interesting)
As a cable TV provider, you're correct. However, Comcast also has a large network of fiber and copper that provide high-speed data service to a captive audience. Not all Comcast infrastructure is legacy copper, and even the copper that is there is often just the local loop, backed by fiber a few blocks away..
You mean Kabletown? (Score:2)
Is Kabletown [youtube.com] getting a new owner?
Never going to happen (Score:2)
Verizon will never be able to buy Comcast.
More likely the real target is Charter, and muddying the waters by throwing Comcast's name in is just a bargaining tactic.
Re: (Score:2)
Technically, Verizon is a Fortune 13 company [fortune.com], whilst Comcast is a Fortune 37 [fortune.com].
Interesting that Comcast bought DreamWorks Animation studio for $3.8 billion.
So yeah, one big evil fish could buy one smaller bad fish. :-/
Re: (Score:1)
This should be modded up up up.
Why? Think about it: Once they have the technology to animate and create extremely realistic-looking scenes, the owners can then create and distribute their own fake news at will; they will own everything from creation to delivery with no one to get in the way of pushing whatever agenda is bought by the highest bidder.
You think people are divided into camps now? Just you wait until they wall off services and get people "on their network"
Grow demand? (Score:2, Funny)
You want to grow demand for your product? How about offering a good product at a reasonable price? It's just so crazy it might work! You know what consumers want. You just refuse to sell it to them.
Reduces competition ... (Score:2)
MaBell (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I think the entire phone system could merge back into one company, and no one important will blink an eye. It's a different world. We now have various cellular companies offering phone service, not to mention hundreds (thousands?) of various sized VOIP internet companies.
For instance, in my household alone I use a cell phone and MagicJack each tied to a Google Voice number. We use Spectrum/TWC here. Landline company mergers won't even affect many of us.
While mergers could be a big problem for communities t
Re: (Score:1)
Look at the heads of AT&T back in the 80s, names of companies, names of executives spin-offs, and where the money went: AT&T was never broken up, it was just broken into a few pieces that easily colluded behind closed doors to ensure they would get back together eventually, after the people in office had left/given up/died.
Too much overlap, not enough coverage (Score:2)
Verizon wants to do what AT&T tried to do in the 1990s, become a nationwide wireline provider. Didn't end so well for AT&T (real T, not former Bell South or whatever). Verizon is all about the northeast and mid-atlantic, where Comcast also has a big presence. But the rest of the country is covered by many different cable companies, and also a good bit of geography still has no cable at all. Hard to run national campaigns when most of the people watching aren't able to get your product.
Bad news for Comcast and Charter! (Score:1)
Merged corp. needs a name (Score:3)
I suggest VerComChaSuck.
Re:Merged corp. needs a name (earlier run-thru) (Score:1)
I worked for Alltel. Verizon bought us in 2008 -- excuse me, it was a "Merger of Equals" was the line the executives pushed within Alltel.
Lowell McAdam and all the top executives came down to speak to us in Little Rock at Alltel Arena (Now Verizon Arena.) There were -- I don't know -- 400 people in the room. They had multiple meetings for different overall groups. We were the internal technical side.
He gave a nice talk as well as the other executives and asked for audience q
Shit Summary. Malone WHO? (Score:2)
The summary manages to mention someone named Malone, but only once and without saying who that person actually is.
Nice work there editor. You lost the subject but left in a reference to it. Maybe the inevitable dupe post will fix this.
Re: (Score:3)
WTF?