http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/business/media/comcast-time-warner-cable-merger.html?emc=edit_na_20150423&nlid=53341471
By EMILY STEEL, DAVID GELLES and REBECCA R. RUIZ
APRIL 23, 2015

Comcast is planning to abandon its $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable after the deal encountered intense regulatory scrutiny over whether it was anticompetitive and in the public interest, people briefed on the matter said on Thursday.

The merger would have united the country’s two largest cable operators and reshaped video and broadband markets. Just a day earlier, Comcast met with the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission.

Some lawmakers, public advocacy groups and media and technology companies had rallied against the merger.

A Comcast spokeswoman declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Time Warner Cable.

News that Comcast was walking away from the deal first was reported by Bloomberg.

On Wednesday, Comcast officials met with both the Justice Department and the F.C.C., amid signs of stiff resistance from the regulatory agencies. Justice Department officials were considering whether the deal would harm competition, while the F.C.C. was evaluating whether the deal was in the public interest.

Last week, staff lawyers at the Justice Department raised concerns about the merger and were leaning toward recommending that it be blocked, people familiar with their thinking said. While the development was preliminary, it signaled that the tide had turned against the deal.

On Wednesday, crucial F.C.C. staff members recommended in an informal presentation that the merger be referred to an administrative law judge, according to people familiar with the discussions. That results in a drawn-out process that is viewed as a death knell for deals, and a strong signal that the agency does not think them in the public interest.

In 2011, the F.C.C. formally proposed the same path when considering AT&T and T-Mobile’s bid to merge; within a week the two companies had withdrawn their application.

The F.C.C. proposal to follow that course for Comcast was only a preliminary one; no formal order was circulated among the agency’s commissioners. Nonetheless, the message from the general counsel’s office this week was strong, according to people familiar with its content, and it deterred Comcast from proposing further, seemingly futile, concessions.

Neil Grace, a spokesman for the F.C.C., declined to comment.

here for dis.

You can get to be a huge conglomerate, but you can't merge with another huge conglomerate and control over half a market.

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