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from the net-neutrality-will-save-us...-oh-wait dept.
M&A gates open with judge's blessing on AT&T-Time Warner merger
A federal judge on Tuesday gave a ringing endorsement to AT&T Inc's planned acquisition of Time Warner Inc without any conditions, opening the door for companies such as Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc to pursue deals to buy creators of media content.
The ruling by Judge Richard Leon bit.ly/2Jxx6qE of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia brings an end to a six-week antitrust trial in which U.S. regulators argued that the $85 billion deal would give AT&T undue leverage against rival cable providers that relied on Time Warner's content.
The judge's strong approval, and scathing opinion that urged the government not to seek a stay if they opposed the ruling, will give telecommunications providers the confidence that similar types of acquisitions will also have a shot at clearing regulatory hurdles, and could spur other copycat mergers this year, industry analysts and dealmakers said.
See also: AT&T-Time Warner Ruling Shows a Need to Reboot Antitrust Laws (archive)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Thursday June 14 2018, @02:36AM (5 children)
REDUCE competition so the executives and shareholders win. Who cares the consumer loses.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday June 14 2018, @02:55AM (3 children)
Fortunately, entertainment is not a survival need.
But I have a feeling they won't stop at this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Thursday June 14 2018, @03:47AM (2 children)
But the Internet is no longer a luxury, it's a need.
Where I live, there were actually choices for broadband: Road Runner (Time Warner cable TV line Internet) or AT&T (first their crappy DSL broadband that was barely faster than a 56k modem, over their phone lines of course, then later their U-Verse stuff which at first was no faster than their DSL service). Some people had a 3rd option: Verizon fiber. If AT&T somehow acquires Time Warner ISP spinoff Spectrum, a whole lot of people will be screwed. I hear satellite Internet has an unavoidable lag that makes Internet telephony really annoying, but that may be the only competition left.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:15PM (1 child)
Given the direction things are going, people are going to have to re-evaluate how dependent they should be on internet access.
Getting internet access already involves many points of failure, increasing complexity, and requires a large personal investment in computing devices and services. With changes like these we can expect to see services degrade and prices go up.
Too many services are internet-only these days. You can't even pick up a (regular) telephone or walk in to a building and talk to an actual human. There needs to be viable alternatives to doing things on teh web.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday June 14 2018, @06:01PM
You are saying that we should keep various fallbacks viable? That's okay, but I feel it's not our best course of action. No, I think we must devote most of our efforts towards keeping the Internet free. Free of surveillance, censorship, throttling, and monopolistic or despotic government control. We can't afford to abandon it, it's just too valuable. Past networks such as the telephone system were much, much worse.
And we can keep it our Internet, we have the power and numbers. For instance, I made a point of downloading supposedly copyrighted works just to trigger the Copyright Alert System when they were running that abomination. Managed to trigger it 3 times before they gave up and ended the system, sulking about what shameless, heartless, thieving pirates we all are. I buy my games from Humble Bundle. I'm done with the likes of EA.
There has also been a big drive to switch over to https. I think it has been overkill, but encryption sure makes law enforcement whine for things they shouldn't have anyway.
I love it that the prudes are unable to censor indecency, and not only have been able to do little more than mope about all the nudity, sex, and far out freaky fetishes all over the Internet, but are on the way to extinction. When I was a kid, minors were forbidden from buying adult magazines at the newsstand. Even really mild ones like Playboy were off limits. Crazy. I bought a few anyway, and while the clerk stared hard at me, he didn't ask that I prove my age. Rung it up and took the money. I am amazed at the progress that's been made on that and LBGT issues. Maybe abortion rights could use a bit of help, but all in all, it's been great.
No, the forces that are trying to control everything, for our own good of course, are the ones feeling downhearted and frustrated. Control is such a lazy approach to dealing with our fellow humans. Someday, perhaps, people inclined to that approach to life will really understand that it is weak and unethical, and we'll have an end to such attempts.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 14 2018, @05:52PM
REDUCE competition so the executives and shareholders win. Who cares the consumer loses.
This will definitely help all those struggling coal miners is Appalachia!