Bidness Etc - TWC Acquisition by Comcast Is Still Hanging In Between

After the bold acquisition move by Comcast Corporation last year in acquiring Time Warner Cable, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has yet to approve the merger details in order to finalize the procurement.
Even after a year of the signed deal announcement of Comcast Corporation’s (NASDAQ:CMCSA) audacious move in attaining the cable telecommunications leading company Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE:TWC), FCC continues to scrutinize the merger before closing it for better. The $45billion deal would astoundingly conjoint country’s two biggest cable operators, who have individually already infiltrated the market heavily.
The uncertainty regarding the deal of the merger has aggravated with time in fact. US Federal Communications Commission has been found updating stringent regulations regarding the governance of internet and net neutrality, heavily influenced by Obama administration. After the proposal of these strict conventions, many investors have been doubtful regarding the consummation of the merger after all. Investors have been found to highly doubt the acquisition to take place in practicality; hence the stocks were found to be declining for both operators; Comcast and TWC, in January, before recovering back during mid-February.
Regarding the merger, the financial advisors has assisted the deal has brought to notice that the approval and acceptance of the acquisition by the regulatory body is unpredictable. Kevin Werbach, a former FCC regulator, said that, “The prospects for the deal, while they’re still not bad, have continued to go down.”
Contrarily, David L. Cohen, Executive VP at Comcast Corporation is confident that the deal will get through approval soon, however he does agree that with that, new conditions will pose relieving antitrust concerns.
Likewise, further delays are anticipated in the linking of AT&T Inc. and DirecTV, due to the federal court dispute upon disclosure of private cable industry documents for access, has complicated the process of reviewing the proposed merger between the companies further.
According to The Wall Street Journal news, it was reported that a judge panel of three US appeals court has showed concerns regarding FCC’s decision of allowing the accessibility of merging companies’ contracts to their competitors. This will in result reveal company details and sensitive material, which includes pricing strategies, negotiation details and other tactics. The judges’ panel proposed that it is essential that the disclosed material should be limited in terms of the mergers and other deals, as the sensitive material can prove to be damaging for the companies itself.
Robert Long, the content lawyer of AT&T and DirecTV has argued that the commission has performed in a completely unprecedented manner, when they decided to divulge the companies’ proprietary documents to its biggest rivals; Dish Network and CBS Corporation.