US Department of Justice stands in the way of Comcast-Time Warner merger

US Department of Justice stands in the way of Comcast-Time Warner merger

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It is reported that representatives from Comcast and Time Warner Cable will meet U.S Justice Department officials on Wednesday with both companies seeking an approval from regulatory bodies for their planned merger. Comcast faced a hindrance from U.S antitrust lawyers as it is muscling up its efforts to acquire Time Warner Cable. U.S Justice Department officials are reportedly not in favor of the deal as it would be bad for consumers.

Comcast, U.S largest Internet and TV company, expects to procure rival cable company in a deal worth $45.2 billion, further stabilizing its position in market. Such deal could have potential significance for Apple and others who are seeking for starting their own services like iTunes and Apple TV requiring home Internet use for delivering such services to consumers.

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken had opposed this deal in the net neutrality debate and was able to successfully persuade the Federal Communications Commission to regular Internet service providers under the Communications Act. Thus prohibiting Internet service providers like Comcast and Time Warner from creating “Internet fast lanes.”

Franken called Comcast “greedy and dishonest,” in his fresh scornful analysis, deducing from cable provider’s aggressive behavior of prioritizing its own services and networks it possesses to skirmish rivals. Comcast purchased NBCUniversal, the broadcasting giant, but prioritized its own CNBC network to compete with rival Bloomberg.

“No company should be entrusted with the kind of dominant market position Comcast is seeking in this deal, especially when the company in question has proven that they simply can’t be trusted,” Franken said.

The inspections of the planned Comcast-Time Warner merger appears as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)  is preparing to launch its own TV service and Apple is negotiating with content providers to showcase their contents through the platform of Apple TV service which is speculated to launch this fall.

The channels like Disney, CBS, 20th Century Fox, Discovery, and Viacom are in the priority list of Apple. Apple would charge $20 and $40 per month for this service and in order to attract the content owners the company is allegedly proposing to share viewership data with content owners.

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I am a lecturer at the University of Economics in Bratislava, department of Banking and International Finance. I have a Ph.D. academic degree, my dissertation was focused on major markets. Commodities and stock markets are also the main focus of my research and publication activities. I have approximately 10 years of investing experiences. My investments mostly focus on small- to mid-cap companies of energy sector, financial and technology.

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