Opposition to AT&T, Time Warner Merger is Fast and Fierce This weekend's announcement by AT&T that it intends to pay $85 billion to acquire Time Warner is not being received well by consumer advocates. Given AT&T's anti-consumer history (whether helping crammers rip off its own customers or viciously fighting net neutrality), consumer advocates were quick to warn that letting AT&T control both the content and the conduit would be a disaster for consumers. Much of that skepticism comes after AT&T made countless false claims to push its failed T-Mobile acquisition attempt.

AT&T unsurprisingly was shocked at the faintest idea that this deal too could be blocked or face significant merger conditions. "We’re buying what I think is the premium content creator, developer and aggregator on the planet,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson tells the New York Times. “To buy that and then constrict how that content is distributed doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It’s almost illogical.” AT&T also was quick to try and distance this merger from its failed acquisition of T-Mobile, which was scrapped (in part) because of AT&T's false claims about and hubris surrounding the deal. "This is not the T-Mobile deal -- there is no competitor being removed from the marketplace,” Stephenson told CNN this week. "Time Warner is a supplier to AT&T. It’s a classic vertical merger. They’re always dealt with by concessions and conditions. That’s what we anticipate happening here." Few are buying AT&T's claims of consumer benefits, and most consumer groups say this sort of vertical integration poses as many risks as the elimination of direct competitors. Of particular worry is the idea that AT&T could give its (and Time Warner's) content cap exempt status, a controversial practice known as zero rating that AT&T has confirmed will be a major component of its upcoming DirecTV Now streaming video service. Such a practice benefits the host company, but penalizes users that use competing services like Amazon or Hulu. Consumer groups like Public Knowledge were quick to note that the deal would also likely result in AT&T making it more difficult than ever to competing streaming services to get access to Time Warner content. Groups like the Center for Digital Democracy also warned that the deal could spell disaster for consumer privacy, given AT&T's poor track record on that front as well. With FCC and DOJ review of the deal likely taking place under a new administration, the multi-billion dollar question is whether regulators will approve the deal anyway (or saddle it with the kind of timid conditions that have become the norm for such deals). Notably leading in the polls, that task will likely fall to the Clinton administration, which so far has been giving news outlets a notable non-answer; only stating that she "certainly thinks regulators should look at it." The fact that AT&T is proposing this deal at all certainly suggests it thinks a Clinton administration won't oppose the union. The fact that AT&T is proposing this deal at all certainly suggests it thinks a Clinton administration won't oppose the union.







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Most recommended from 49 comments



Anon0b197

@comcast.net 19 recommendations Anon0b197 Anon ATT + Comcast + Verizon These 3 companies should not be allowed to buyout or merge with any other company until they properly wire the nation and not just cherry pick.



No more promises.

No more empty words.

Actions or bust. mxyztplk

join:2003-07-24

San Jose, CA 2 edits 14 recommendations mxyztplk Member Deathstar Version 3.0 Will Be The Best Version Yet Once the Feds let them have the vertical integration they appear to need to shore up their duopoly, the Deathstar will be transformed into pure wholesome goodness!

Kinder, gentler, unmonopolistic, price-competitive like crazy!

No more big payoffs to politicians to pass anti-competitive laws!

No more letting old communications lines deteriorate!

No more anticompetitive bundling!

Pay-for-privacy never to return!

Caps, they won't need no stinkin' caps!

The bigger they are, the better they will be for America!

They'll be so good, we'll never have to break them up again!

Of course, the Feds could simply say no, thereby effectively killing the deal, for that would cause it to be hung up in the courts for several years.

But that would foreclose all of the benefits that a vertically integrated Deathstar would provide to our economy.

Zenit

The system is the solution

Premium Member

join:2012-05-07

Purcellville, VA 10 recommendations Zenit Premium Member It's official - the worst CEO of the ILEC's is Randall Stephenson I have made up my mind. Randall Stephenson wins the award of "most inept/stupid ILEC/Wireless CEO", solidly beating Lowell McAdam of Verizon by blowing billions of dollars on DirecTV, and then wanting to blow even more cash up with buying Time Warner.



Merger fail of the century. Time Warner has a toxic culture and will destroy AT&T from the inside. They earned it.



Lowell's adventures with AOL and now Yahoo are expensive, but the DirecTV and potential TW deal eclipse them in scope.



Brian Roberts at Comcast bought NBC to be greedy; it was a strategic move for Comcast to gain more leverage in the content realm. They have been pulling OTA NBC affiliates in areas without fixed TV competition. WHAG out of Hagerstown, MD lost their NBC affiliation this year; the areas of western Maryland, northwestern VA, and the panhandle of WV have NO cable tv competition to Comcast - no FiOS TV. Conveniently Comcast carries NBC4 out of DC on their plant in those areas, so you can pay Comcast to have NBC, but they took it away from the OTA users. They did this right before the Rio Olympics. bcltoys

join:2008-07-21 10 recommendations bcltoys Member Ya As they should,put the money in your networks.

mackey

Premium Member

join:2007-08-20 7 recommendations mackey Premium Member Meh Since they let the Comcast/NBC merger go through they really can't say anything about this one. Kearnstd

Space Elf

Premium Member

join:2002-01-22

Mullica Hill, NJ 6 recommendations Kearnstd Premium Member Regulators need to shut down mergers We are letting companies get way too big and what happens if things go south its us who has to prop them up. Also monopolies are bad, What good for America comes of only a handful of companies own all the media production and distribution?

IowaCowboy

Supermarket Hero

Premium Member

join:2010-10-16

Springfield, MA 4 recommendations IowaCowboy Premium Member Merger condition #1 One of the conditions of the merger should be that AT&T must adhere to Net Neutrality including no zero rating and they or their lobbying groups have to waive their right to sue the FCC and go through arbitration. davidhoffman

Premium Member

join:2009-11-19

Warner Robins, GA 3 recommendations davidhoffman Premium Member Merger conditions. This merger will happen in some form because Comcast-NBC happened. That means legal precedent. Since it will have to be approved in some form I want a major set of concessions from AT&T. Find something they want from Time Warner, that might be debatable, and use it as leverage. In exchange AT&T shall change the pricing for their HSI ADSL2+ offerings.



First, all tiers are reduced in price to the price of the 768Kbps tier. Second, the different tier levels are eliminated by allowing the modems and gateways to free float and synchronize at whatever data transfer rate they can. That means anywhere from the top performance of 24Mbps down to 0.375Mbps down. Third, a minimum of a 1 TB cap. Fourth, these terms shall be in force for at least 12 years from the time the entire existing AT&T POTS or HSI geographic service area has them in place.



These are mostly changes that can be done by typing commands, mouse clicking on some options, and changing some physical switch settings in AT&T's existing hardware, software, and firmware. Extremely low cost to implement.



No, I do not want them involved in supplying laptops, digital divide reduction centers, etc. They can supply plain ADSL2+ modems with the HSI service. The rest of that stuff just complicates the concession and significantly increases the cost of the concession. Keep it simple. Significantly lower costs for AT&T HSI service for ANYONE anywhere within the existing AT&T HSI service areas as of 00hours:00minutes:01seconds on 01 October 2016.

TIGERON

join:2008-03-11

Boston, MA Motorola MG7550

3 recommendations TIGERON Member It seems investors are telling AT&T go fuck yourself LOL



"Looks like the market is going to be cautious until there is some kind of read on the regulatory landscape," says Joe Bonner, analyst at Argus Research. The current trading price of Time Warner implies there's just a one-in-three chance the deal gets done as proposed, says James Dix, analyst at Wedbush Securities.



It's not just skepticism about this deal's fate in front of regulators, though. Rather than sparking enthusiasm over the future of telecom and media, investors pulled back on the companies in the industries across the board. An equal-weighted index of all 18 Standard & Poor's 500 stocks in telecom and media fell 0.2% Monday, even as the S&P 500 itself gained 0.5%.



Investors are wondering what Time Warner's sellout means about the future of stand-alone media companies. And it's not necessarily positive. "Time Warner running into the arms of AT&T can be interpreted as a sign of weakness in the big media business model," says Argus' Joe Bonner.



»www.usatoday.com/story/m ··· 2682432/ Shares of Time Warner (TWX) closed down 3% Monday to $86.78 dragging the company's market value to $68.1 billion, well below AT&T's buyout price of $107.50 a share or $83.6 billion excluding assumed debt. Rather than celebrating the buyout, which is usually the case after a mega deal like this one, investors know this combination will face major hurdles including getting regulatory approval. Perhaps more importantly, though, the pending deal shows a sign of weakness from a major media player amid technological change."Looks like the market is going to be cautious until there is some kind of read on the regulatory landscape," says Joe Bonner, analyst at Argus Research. The current trading price of Time Warner implies there's just a one-in-three chance the deal gets done as proposed, says James Dix, analyst at Wedbush Securities.It's not just skepticism about this deal's fate in front of regulators, though. Rather than sparking enthusiasm over the future of telecom and media, investors pulled back on the companies in the industries across the board. An equal-weighted index of all 18 Standard & Poor's 500 stocks in telecom and media fell 0.2% Monday, even as the S&P 500 itself gained 0.5%.Investors are wondering what Time Warner's sellout means about the future of stand-alone media companies. And it's not necessarily positive. "Time Warner running into the arms of AT&T can be interpreted as a sign of weakness in the big media business model," says Argus' Joe Bonner. mikesco8

join:2006-02-17

Southwick, MA 3 recommendations mikesco8 Member Not only should they say no to this merger... They should force a breakup of Comcast and NBC since Comcast failed to live up to their agreements on that merger.

woody7

Premium Member

join:2000-10-13

Torrance, CA 2 recommendations woody7 Premium Member hmm .............. Why...............................................