July 26th, 2014
In a memo sent to Time Warner Cable employees Thursday, C.E.O. Rob Marcus said that a strained F.C.C. could delay approval for the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger.
In the letter, Marcus cited the other mega telecom merger on the Commission’s docket, that of AT&T and DirecTV, as well as a possible combination of Sprint and T-Mobile. Its case load, he noted, also currently includes issues related to net neutrality and wireless spectrum auctions, with the possibility of a deal that involves Time Warner on the horizon.
“In the meantime, recent speculation about mergers and acquisitions in the content world are adding more fuel to the public debate about whether consolidation is good or bad for consumers,” he added. “While it’s possible that all this noise could impact the review of our deal, we continue to work closely with Comcast on planning for a closing around year-end, understanding that it could take longer.”
Marcus said that the company is beginning the planning process of integrating Time Warner Cable into Comcast and the resulting subscriber spinoff with Charter, assuming the deal closes. Marcus wrote that senior executives from all three companies have held more than 40 meetings to plan the integration as well as to respond to questions.
You can read his full letter here.
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