Comcast-Time Warner Merger Is Dead

UPDATE 5PM Thursday: Comcast Corp. is preparing to announce Friday that the company will abandon its attempt to buy Time Warner Cable, according to several reports.

Comcast Corp. is planning to walk away from its proposed $45.2 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable Inc., people with knowledge of the matter said, after meeting with opposition from U.S. regulators.

Comcast’s board is meeting Thursday, and an announcement may come as soon as Friday, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

The cable giant had been facing growing resistance in Washington.

Earlier posting...

The FCC’s staff threw up a significant roadblock Wednesday to Comcast Corp.’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc., recommending a procedural move that could potentially sink one of the media industry’s biggest mergers in years according to The Wall Street Journal.

The FCC staff reached a conclusion that the best option for the FCC is to issue a “hearing designation order,” according to people familiar with the matter. In effect, that would put the $45.2 billion merger in the hands of an administrative law judge, and would be seen as a strong sign the FCC doesn’t believe the deal is in the public interest.

A hearing could be a drawn-out process, and some regulatory experts describe the procedure as a deal-killer, though Comcast would be entitled to make its case for the tie-up.

Comcast executives on Wednesday met with officials at the FCC and the Justice Department, as those regulators’ reviews of the proposed merger enters its final stages.

Regulatory scrutiny of the deal has intensified in recent weeks. The government is concerned about the influence the combined cable behemoth would have in the broadband and pay-television markets.

The Justice Department meeting with Comcast on Wednesday was a chance for both sides to air their views and begin discussing whether there are any concessions the cable companies could offer that would ease the regulators’ worries.

Justice officials made clear during the session they had significant concerns about the deal, but it wasn’t a drop-dead meeting and the two sides are expected to continue a dialogue, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Bloomberg is reporting opposition from the FCC was stronger than the Justice Department’s and could be the bigger obstacle.

“I’d never say anything was 100 percent dead, but this is in the 99 percent category,” Rich Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG in New York, said in a phone interview. “It’s not every day that you have a transaction that is universally hated by everyone outside of Philadelphia,” where Comcast is based.