Consumer Advocate: Comcast Faced Troublesome Disclosures If It Had Pressed Merger Deal
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Leaders at Comcast Corporation are regrouping, now that their fourteen-month, $45-billion quest to acquire Time Warner Cable has unraveled.
The combination would have put nearly 30 percent of pay TV service and more than 50 percent of broadband subscribers under the Comcast roof.
Comcast, based in Philadelphia, argued that consumers would benefit from faster Internet speeds and more TV options. But the Federal Communications Commission and the US Justice Department said the deal would give Comcast too much clout in cable TV and Internet services.
Public Knowledge, based in Washington, DC. is one of the consumer advocacy groups that filed an objection to the merger. Its senior staff attorney, John Bergmayer, says that by walking away, Comcast prevents proprietary business information from coming out.
"Like, if the Department of Justice actually filed suit against Comcast, a lot of analysis of Comcast's business practices would become part of the public record," he notes.
Public Knowledge says customers let it be known that they were already dissatisfied with Comcast's customer service, logging nearly one million comments and petition signatures to the FCC asking that the merger be blocked.
