Comcast-Time Warner $45B Merger Deal Raises Antitrust Concerns

Consumer groups are already raising antitrust questions related to Comcast’s agreement to take over Time Warner in exchange for more than $45 billion in stock, a deal that would combine  the two largest cable providers in the country. Together they would serve 34 million cable subscribers, but an unattributed source has told The Washington  Post that  the providers are willing to shed about 3 million of them, enough to put them below a 30 percent threshold to  stave off antitrust concerns. It remains to be seen if such efforts are enough to persuade antitrust regulators, who already look warily at Comcast’s acquisition of entertainment complex NBC Universal in 2011. Meanwhile the FCC will have its own concerns.