Report: Verizon Looking to Buy Comcast or Charter Verizon may be looking to acquire a cable company in the hopes of pursuing additional growth, anonymous sources tell the New York Post. The paper claims that Verizon is "weighing the acquisition of a cable company to help grow demand for its wireless data products," according to two anonymous sources. Any such deal wouldn't be small; the report claims that Altice wouldn't give Verizon the kind of scope they're looking for, so the company is most interested in acquiring Comcast or Charter in a mega-merger of the ages.

The report suggests such a union could fuel Verizon's 5G ambitions, but technically such a deal doesn't really make a lot of sense. Comcast, Charter and Verizon's fixed-line networks are all technologically very different and integration would be a nightmare. And while Verizon could use cable's core capacity and WiFi hotspots to help fuel 5G, Verizon has no shortage of its own core bandwidth, and has actually been looking to get out of the fixed-line broadband business and pivot to marketing to Millennials. As such, suddenly saddling itself with tens of millions of new fixed-line residential connections would be notably out of character. The debt load created from a Comcast NBC Universal buy would also be monumental. A far more likely deal for Verizon would be some kind of "smaller," pure media company acquisition (CBS), to keep pace with AT&T's looming $100 billion acquisition of Time Warner. Much of this hysteria appears to be originating with Wall Street analysts, who are bullish about the expected rise in mega-mergers under a more industry-friendly Trump administration. UBS analyst John Hodulik recently highlighted most of the potential mergers in 2017, including a Comcast acquisition of T-Mobile, a Sprint T-Mobile merger, and even a Verizon acquisition of Comcast NBC Universal. All told, these rumors may be more about Wall Street firms cashing in on rumor-triggered stock movement than anything resembling actual reality. Still, it's abundantly clear that Wall Street believes the Trump administration is going to allow a number of megamergers that had previously been seen as unthinkable. All told, these rumors may be more about Wall Street firms cashing in on rumor-triggered stock movement than anything resembling actual reality. Still, it's abundantly clear that Wall Street believes the Trump administration is going to allow a number of megamergers that had previously been seen as unthinkable.







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Most recommended from 79 comments

silbaco

Premium Member

join:2009-08-03

USA 15 recommendations silbaco Premium Member Verizon Pretty sure this anonymous source is full of nonsense. Verizon is already buried in debt. Buying a cable company doesn't make sense. The price for either Comcast or Charter would add unsustainable levels of debt. It's also been clear they have been trying to shed users, not add them.



I'd say if Verizon is going to buy anyone, it is going to be a content or media company. soothsayer15

join:2002-03-01

Irving, TX 11 recommendations soothsayer15 Member Buy back CA, TX, and FL. I wish Verizon would buy back TX from Frontier. Someone will buy Frontier for pennies on the dollar soon the way they're going.

PapaMidnight

join:2009-01-13

Baltimore, MD 10 recommendations PapaMidnight Member Return of the Bell? Whether or not this is speculation, it speaks to the landscape as a whole.



Ma Bell seems to be returning with a vengeance, and this time is coming along with a serious amount of media consolidation. etaadmin

join:2002-01-17

united state 6 recommendations etaadmin Member Verizon's track record Given Verizon's track record on upgrades I can assure that if VZ buys Charter or Comcast the majority of subscribers will be stuck with DOCSIS2.1 just like their DSL markets... NO THANKS!

tshirt

Premium Member

join:2004-07-11

Snohomish, WA 6 recommendations tshirt Premium Member seems very unlikely the Verizon could buy or be bought by either one from a regulatory viewpoint

and I would think cable companies should be quite confident in the value of their current business model going forward, while Verizon is in experimental mode dumping most wireline for a yet untested wire replacement.

I can see V might be looking to buy newer wireline plant as a backup, but I fail to see what value they can offer the cablecos

tc1uscg

join:2005-03-09

Guantanamo 5 recommendations tc1uscg Member Uhh, No.



Why don't they buy the likes of WideOpenWest. Drop fiber everywhere and rule the world... Not going to happen. Great, and we think Comcast charges too much.Why don't they buy the likes of WideOpenWest. Drop fiber everywhere and rule the world... Not going to happen.

maartena

Elmo

Premium Member

join:2002-05-10

Orange, CA 2 recommendations maartena Premium Member Verizon territories... I would have said the FCC would never allow such a thing, but with Trump's FCC anything is possible, and I wouldn't at all be surprised such a merger gets approved.



But what does this do to markets like e.g. Baltimore and Boston, who only have recently been getting some FIOS upgrades.....or the more particular, the many markets where Verizon has aging copper that they don't want to upgrade, and the cable company is not all that much better. What if they own both? And Verizon owns *all* physical cables going into your house that are capable of delivering internet or television? They would be able to screw you over and not care. "Go to the competition then", they will say..... fully knowing the only competition out there is a Sprint LTE phone and a satellite dish.

tomatoe

Premium Member

join:2002-08-03

Kansas City, MO 2 recommendations tomatoe Premium Member anonymous sources when ever I hear the term anonymous sources

GadgetMan

join:2014-12-20

Bristol, RI 2 recommendations GadgetMan Member Shutting Down 100 Year Old Legacy Copper Outside Plant If Verizon bought a cable co that, in large part, was redundant to their copper network they would shut down their own outside plant using the cable co fiber/coax network instead. Oh yeah and non union employees also.