Don't Expect US Approval of Huge Telecom Mergers 64
An article from Reuters explains how mergers involving T-Mobile and Time Warner Cable are likely to face a high level of scrutiny from the Obama Administration. Officials are wary of allowing any more power to consolidate among the huge corporations dominating the industry. A merger with one of the smaller companies would have a much easier time gaining approval.
"Regulators could, on the other hand, welcome transactions that bolster new entrants, such as one combining satellite TV service provider Dish Network Corp with T-Mobile, experts say. 'Dish/T-Mobile, from a regulatory standpoint, it would be a slam-dunk,' said Stifel analyst David Kaut. ... The FCC, in an annual report released in March, said competition in the wireless industry is 'highly concentrated.' Similarly, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for antitrust, William Baer, has described the industry as 'not uniformly competitive.' 'The Department believes it is essential to maintain vigilance against any lessening of the intensity of competitive market forces,' Baer told the FCC in a filing in April related to an upcoming auction of low-frequency airwaves. The government's rejection of AT&T's $39 billion plan to buy T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom in 2011 remains the biggest shadow looming over big communications deals."
What competitive market forces (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean the ones where they collude to keep the cost of service artificially high?
This is nothing a few big campaign donations... (Score:3, Insightful)
...won't fix. Time-Warner and T-Mobil just need to pony up, and then the crony capitalist decision-making will kick in ala Solyndra, GM, CGI and Serco [forbes.com]...
Too bad.... (Score:5, Insightful)
....the government didn't have this kind of wisdom when they allowed allow of the oil company mergers again. (It's amazing how 100 years and millions and millions of bribe...err, campaign donations have changed perspectives.) How well have they worked out for the American consumer?
Time Warner and Comcast are NOT Competitors (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What competitive market forces (Score:5, Insightful)
I love the part where that disappoints the market and it could go up to 50%.