Giant Cable Companies Merging Is Bad for You; Only Savior Is an Uber for the Internet

How much do you like your cable and Internet service provider? The answer is likely to fall on the spectrum from “strongly dislike” to “it is the literal spawn of the devil.”

We all generally feel this way and yet we’re not really sure what to do about it. These guys are the Goliaths and we’re a bunch of Davids. And now the Goliaths want to team up.

Earlier this year, we almost had the Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger, which thankfully never made it off the ground. Now with Comcast, the Goliath-est of the cable/internet providers, on the sidelines, we have the making of a new super-Goliath, with Charter Communications attempting to purchase Time Warner Cable for approximately $55 billion and Bright House Networks for $10.4 billion.

This is bad news for you and will only make the cable company you have and hate now more hateable. And the sad thing is, David can actually beat Goliath — we’ve seen it happen. It’s why the solution is an Uber for the Internet.

On a recent Uber trip, the driver missed a couple turns, causing the trip to last a few minutes longer than it should have been. The driver was cool about it and apologetic — not a huge deal. I gave him 5 stars but made a note about the turn mishaps. The next day I was refunded a third of the trip with a quick email saying sorry. They didn’t have to do it, but that small gesture doesn’t phase Uber and makes me a more loyal customer.

Uber cares if you have a bad experience. Uber gives a shit — whereas your cable and Internet company DGAF. Have you ever had a service interruption and your Internet wasn’t working properly for a couple hours, or days? Ever try to call up your Internet service provider and get some sort of rebate? Please. Your Internet provider doesn’t ultimately care if you have shitty service. There’s no incentive for them to win you over. In most areas, between two-thirds and three-quarters of the country, there is no other Internet option. What are you going to do, stop using the Internet? ‘Ha ha you have no say in the matter, so write your congressman or something (by the way, we own them too).’

Via: Mediaite

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Charter Snags Time Warner Cable in $55 Billion Deal

Charter Communications Inc. has struck a $55 billion cash-and-stock deal for Time Warner Cable Inc., giving cable mogul John Malone the prize he has been chasing for two years.

The offer is valued at about $195 a share, a 14% premium to Time Warner Cable's last closing price. Including debt, the deal is valued at $78.7 billion.

Shares of Charter gained 3.2% to $181 in premarket trading, while Time Warner's shares gained 11.3% to $190.50 a share.

The acquisition by Charter, which is backed by Mr. Malone's Liberty Broadband Corp., would vault the cable operator into the ranks of the biggest U.S. broadband and pay-television companies.

The deal comes only a month after Time Warner Cable went back on the block after Comcast terminated the companies' planned $45.2 billion merger in the face of serious pushback from Washington regulators. A Charter-TWC deal could be in for a stringent review in Washington as well, some analysts have said.

As part of the transaction, Charter will also merge with small operator Bright House Networks. The combined cable giant would have 23 million total customers, second only to Comcast's 27 million among cable operators.

Charter, which has 5.9 million residential subscribers in more than 25 states, and Mr. Malone are betting that increased scale will help the company navigate the industry's choppy waters. Operators must contend with the onset of cable "cord-cutting" as frustrated consumers drop connections, the rise of streaming-video competitors from Netflix Inc. to Apple Inc. and expected fights with TV-channel owners over which networks are worth keeping in a bundle.

Via: Fox News

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