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US: Comcast will negotiate with officials to save merger

By  |  April 19, 2015

Comcast and Time Warner Cable will sit down with the Department of Justice officials this week in hopes of negotiating concessions and saving the $45.2 billion merger the Wall Street Journal reported.

This is the first time the companies have meet with regulators since the merger was announced 14 months ago. It’s not clear what more they’ll propose beyond existing offers.

Comcast has argued that the Time Warner Cable deal isn’t anticompetitive and is necessary for the company to compete against an array of emerging threats to the traditional pay-TV model, including technology competitors like Apple and Netflix.

Comcast reportedly won’t budge on one area: net neutrality. If the Justice Department asks Comcast to abide by the FCC’s utility-like net neutrality rules whether or not they survive legal challenges, the company might just “walk away” from the merger, according to the Wall Street Journal.

 

Full Content: The Wall Street Journal

 

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