M & A Law Prof Blog

Editor: Brian JM Quinn
Boston College Law School

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Law Profs against Comcast/TimeWarnerCable

Last week a number of law professors, led by Dan Sokol, sent a letter to the FCC opposing the Comcast/TimeWarnerCable transaction. You'll remember that this deal requires not only anti-trust approval but also approval of the FCC. In fact, it requires a determination by the FCC that the merger is in the "public interest". The letter takes on a number of Comcast's arguments in favor of the deal, including the "no overlap, no problem" argument, noting that at the extreme this argument leads directly to the conclusion that the FCC should be okay with a single broadband cable provider in the US, which on its face seems absurd.

One thing I had forgotten, but the letter writers correctly focus on:  this tie up (Comcast acquiring TimeWarnerCable) involves exactly the same assets (plus more) of a previous deal (AT&T/MediaOne in 2000). The DOJ stepped in and blocked that transaction and blocked it on antitrust grounds.  One wonders if the competitive landscape has changed so much since then that this deal is okay. Though there have been some changes to the contours of competition in this space, the basic lay of the land is still the same. 

-bjmq

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/mergers/2014/10/law-profs-against-comcasttimewarnercable.html

Antitrust, Mergers, Miscellaneous Regulatory Clearances | Permalink

TrackBack URL for this entry:

https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341bfae553ef01bb07a11037970d

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Law Profs against Comcast/TimeWarnerCable:

Comments

Post a comment