IP: AT&T Comcast opens new chapter

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
> Subject: AT&T Comcast opens new chapter
>
> AT&T Comcast opens new chapter
>
> Deal expected to get OK from regulators, speed industry consolidation
>
> By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 12/21/2001
>
> With most analysts concluding the business-friendly Bush
> administration will let the proposed $72 billion merger of AT&T
> Broadband and Comcast go through with few major conditions, the focus
> yesterday was on questions of what happens next.
>
> Could the deal, creating a cable juggernaut with 22 million US
> subscribers, touch off a new wave of industry consolidation? One
> widely envisioned scenario calls for AOL Time Warner and
> Atlanta-based Cox Communications, bested by Comcast in the five-month
> contest for AT&T's cable assets, aiming to grab middle-tier cable
> companies like Cablevision, Charter, and Adelphia, to bulk up and
> avoid being squashed by AT&T Comcast.
>
> Does the deal help the chances for a Dish Network-DirecTV merger?
> Since it was announced earlier this fall, the proposed combination of
> the country's two main satellite TV companies into a 16 million
> subscriber giant has been widely seen as a hard sell for antitrust
> regulators in Washington. Now the companies may have an easier time,
> saying they need to join forces to match a gargantuan AT&T Comcast
> whose reach would encompass two of every five US homes.
>
> ...
>
> http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/355/business/AT_T_Comcast_opens_new_chapter+.shtml

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