The final blow to telecom competitiveness in the United States may not be happening after all. It looks like the nation’s anti-trust regulators have finally realized that merging the two largest cable and Internet providers in the country, who also happen to be two of America’s most hated companies, isn’t a good idea. At least, that’s what Bloomberg is reporting, so don’t take it as fact quite yet.
It’s hard to believe, but it sounds like American antitrust regulators have concluded that a merger between America’s two most hated companies is not in the public interest. Bloomberg is reporting that “staff attorneys at the Justice Department’s antitrust division are nearing a recommendation to block” the proposed merger, which would make it extremely unlikely that the DOJ would sign off on the deal. Bloomberg’s sources indicate that the DOJ has been in touch with “outside parties” over the past few weeks to shore up its case against the merger. While the report doesn’t mention who these parties are, it would not shock us if Internet companies such as Netflix have been lobbying the DOJ to block the deal because they feel it will give Comcast too much power over last-mile infrastructure that connects its content with subscribers.