xpxp2002 Both parties are pro-business and rarely stand in the way of M&As anymore.
The administration in 2013 (unsuccessfully) sued to block the American Airlines/US Airways merger.
They also sued and successfully blocked the AT&T/T-Mobile merger in 2011.
T-Mobile/Sprint had been planning a merger for years, but decided that any chance of approval was unlikely until after the 2016 election. They had actually reached a deal to merge in 2014, but abandoned it after the government privately signaled to them that it wouldn’t be approved.
https://archive.nytimes.com/dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/06/04/sprint-and-t-mobile-agree-on-terms-of-32-billion-deal/
The Bush administration largely allowed airline and telecom mergers without much of a challenge.
xpxp2002 Charter acquired Time Warner Cable in 2016
So why did the same administration block Comcast from buying them, but not Charter? lol
It’s pretty obvious which party is more hands off when it comes to mergers, which is why analysts expect to see a lot of mega-mergers at least attempted over the next 4 years.
xpxp2002 In conclusion, I think it’s important to recognize that there are more and more communities where MSO overlap is present, and might occur in the future.
I don’t think so.
If you look at the FCC map, there are very few areas where multiple cable companies serve the same address.
The choices are generally cable vs. DSL or cable vs. fiber. You rarely see cable vs. cable at the same address.
Cable overbuilding does happen a little bit, but it’s not common at all.
xpxp2002 (That’s not even addressing that Comcast’s mid-split/FDX plant choices don’t align with Charter’s high-split plant design, and the massive cost that would be assessed to customers for the combined company to standardize on one.)
They don’t need to pick just one. Combined 4.0 modems and equipment are coming out which support both ESD and FDX.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up using a combination of both, even if they don’t merge.
xpxp2002 At the end of the day, it’s simply not necessary. Both Comcast and Charter are wildly profitable and self-sustaining, even in areas where they actually have to compete.
As someone else said, John Malone owns about 25% of Charter.
He publicly said recently that a merger would be a good idea.
Companies rarely ignore a shareholder that large. Look at what’s happening with Southwest Airlines now, or US Cellular. Large investors forced their hand.