Oh yeah, it’s worth noting that American Airlines has had a really tough past couple of years.
If Comcast is violating the administration’s orders, it should face significant penalties so consumers know they can count on the administration to protect it from anticompetitive conduct.Senator Al Franken • In a statement, after sending a letter to the FCC and Department of Justice, requesting an investigation of possible violations of the conditions that Comcast agreed to when the company merged with NBC last year. “When the Obama administration signed off on Comcast’s merger with NBC Universal, it laid out a set of rules to prevent Comcast from squashing its competitors,” added Franken. Comcast has denied allegations of wrongdoing, saying that its On Demand service is subject to cable rules, but not internet regulations. source (via • follow)
But the companies’ ambitions must be scaled back if they want any chance at a deal, analysts say. To address the objections of the Justice Department and F.C.C. that a merger would be anticompetitive, AT&T could agree to sell off 40 percent or so T-Mobile’s assets to wireless rivals, they say.
The policy goal, analysts say, would be to strengthen wireless competitors beyond the big two, Verizon Wireless and AT&T. So sales of mobile spectrum, cell towers and customers could not be made to Verizon, but to others, like Sprint and MetroPCS, the third- and fifth-largest carriers.
We’re sure Cricket would love to become a bigger player in the market.
» AT&T’s contributions = Rick Perry’s support? Back in May, Rick Perry told the FCC he backed the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. “I believe that this merger will continue to provide for great consumer choice, offer a wide range of service options, and spur continued innovation,” he wrote. He might’ve had a little help from those campaign contributions over the past decade. AT&T has a bit of a history of going out of its way to turn public favor its way, going so far as to bizarrely convince GLAAD to support the merger. With the Justice Department coming out against the merger and AT&T’s contributions to Perry coming under scrutiny, will Perry back down? (Strangely enough, BTW, the Justice Department’s James Cole made a statement that reads like the polar opposite of what Perry wrote: “We believe the combination of AT&T and T-Mobile would result in tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices, and lower-quality products for their mobile wireless services.” Hrm.)
» Part of a larger trend: A number of other companies have followed this splitting-the-company path lately — including Motorola, Sara Lee and Fortune, Inc. And just you wait. In a year or two, they’re all gonna want to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
Congrats Tumblr!
Don’t screw this up Yahoo.
In 2007, I was...
I started tumblr when I was at one of the lowest points of...
Beside ourselves. So much love to everyone in these uncertain times.
Aol has gone from suck to blow. I love URLesque and many of the people who work there. What a shame.
URLesque was a unique gem in the crazy internet. I will miss it.
Wow, what a shame. Here’s a quote from the article…
All told, some 30 brands will be “integrated” into other properties seen as stronger by editor in chiefArianna Huffington. Among those to be absorbed are Politics Daily (folded into HuffPost Politics), Walletpop (folded into Daily Finance), Urlesque (folded into HuffPost Comedy), Luxist (folded into Stylelist) and TV Squad (folded into AOL TV).
Oh no! Urlesque and TV Squad, we’ll miss you.
Does anyone have the full list? Looking to know the status of AOL News specifically.
» It’s all about infrastructure: AT&T is trying hard to play catch-up with Verizon, which not only has more customers and bandwidth, but also now has the iPhone. The bummer for T-Mobile users is that AT&T’s monthly rates are far higher than T-Mobile’s, which as you might guess has people worried. While T-Mobile has tried to get ahead of talk like this, the concerns are enough that many analysts are warning that the deal won’t go through.
This is surprising because there was recent speculation that Sprint and T-Mobile would merge. (via soupsoup, with link from NYT)
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
