Comcast merger-bait spinoff to be known as GreatLand Connections US cable giant Comcast has provided further details on its plans for a spinoff venture designed to coax the Federal Communications Commission to approve its $45.2bn gobble of Time Warner Cable. The company said that the hypothetical spinoff – heretofore variously referred to as SpinCo and Midland Cable LLC – would officially …
Re GreatLands LLC
Don't go for it! It is merely a stalking horse. This paper company already has a putative CEO...who, of course, is on Comcast's payroll. Gee, I wonder what this person's loyalty would be once the paper tiger were to be created. Can you say "Stephan Elop"? I knew you could....
Seem to me that if there must be two major cable companies to maintain the illusion of "competition" in the US market, we already have that: Comcast, and Time Warner Cable. Reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic for the purposes of making some high-level execs in these two companies, as well as some no-value-added M&A guys, even more insanely rich than they already are -- all to the detriment of the customers and the general public, serves no purpose whatsoever.
GreatLands LLC == Epic Fail!
but...but...but... how could that have happened when we had received assurances?
What, like this reassuring stuff: "It brings to mind our commitment to connecting people and businesses with terrific products and excellent service in the almost 1000 historic communities – large and small – across the 11 states we will serve."
Is this what it takes to become a CEO? Spouting meaningless drivel like this? That statement alone would have been enough to wake up anyone to the dangers inherent in the deal (imagine air raid horns and alarm bells go off like in some major SF movie).
Pass the mind bleach, please.
The FCC should be splitting Comcast into about 5 parts, and also splitting Time Warner cable into about 4 parts, and then telling them that its free for all time, and that any agreements that major or medium sized cities have with their cable companies must allow unlimited competition between companies.
Each new company must hire a CEO from outside of either current company, while the current CEO's are randomly assigned to one of the new companies in a lotto run by the FCC. Smaller cities would have to allow unlimited cable company competition within 7 years. None of these newly formed cable companies created in this process could merge or form partnerships for a minimum of 30 years.
So we would end up with 9 new cable companies, 7 new CEO's (more if these 2 quit and walk away), all with a directive to compete with each other within 3 years. And this would create the competition that we need to get the prices down, speeds up, and better customer service.
This is what the FCC **should** be doing. Not more mergers to reduce competition.
The problem is that, unlike in other parts of the world, the USA has a ton of sparsely-populated area. That means running ANYTHING out to The Middle of Nowhere involves a ton of infrastructure costs, to the point there's the risk of a failure to return on investment. Therefore, ANY company that is interested in actually getting there won't do it without an exclusivity contract. It's basically Deal or No Deal.
IOW, if you prevent contracts of the sort, you run the risk of leaving small communities in the lurch.
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