That silly AT&T is now acquiring companies other than the ones they shed off during the 1974 antitrust lawsuit. This time, it intends to acquire DirecTV in a deal valued at $48.5 billion USD, in stock. All said and done, the total transaction is valued at $67.1 billion. Currently, DirecTV sits at a market cap of 42.77 billion USD and the stock is trading in the range of 84 to 85 dollars per share. In this deal, shareholders will receive $95 per share, about 30% in cash and 70% in AT&T stock.
Owning the globe… trademark.
The deal also claims to have several benefits for consumers. AT&T pledges to add 15 million customer locations, mostly rural, with fiber and wireless local loop (microwave). They also pledge to follow FCC's Open Internet Order from 2010, for at least three years after closing.
Three years of Net Neutrality, fun.
Seriously, none of that has anything to do with DirecTV and it should be enforced, anyway. It is nice that Net Neutrality has become a buzz word, mostly in terms of people becoming aware to it, but an action would be significantly more helpful. Remember that we, at PC Perspective, host our own video streaming service for our podcasts and live events. We rely on our traffic reaching our audience.
But, of course, none of that has anything to do with DirecTV either. It is possible that they could give concessions to help the acquisition go through and, honestly, I am not too against this purchase, if viewed in isolation. Let's just hope that, like their split-up compromise, they don't immediately start undoing it when they think no-one's watching.
We're watching.
And your elected and corrupt
And your elected and corrupt “officials” sit by idly while you get screwed. Maybe the people you elect year after year aren’t really looking after your best interests.
But don’t worry about it, go back to sleep.
Does anyone really believe
Does anyone really believe that their elected officials are looking out for the best interests? You are not special it’s just nobody knows how to deal with the problem. But I’m sure an anonymous post on a random tech article is the first step to solving our problems.
EDIT: you forgot to use the word sheeple
They aren’t sitting idly by;
They aren’t sitting idly by; they are the ones enabling the cable companies’ monopolies by effectively outlawing competition.
Yes a new gilded age, with
Yes a new gilded age, with the Fat Cats gitting fatter, and the brown paper bags stuffed with c-notes, to greese more political palms to look the other way. Where are the Trust Busters of the Information Age, those big data pipes gushing digital gold, and the few hands on the supply valves ready to extort at will those who can not pay to get their digital gold to market. Same as the railroads, and oil trusts of the days we thought had gone forever, and even a New Ma Bell, gitting her new babys in a row! The Internet is no different than the railroads or the Phone lines, just a delivery system at a fatter bandwidth, and every fat cat trying to get around the common carrier rules that were put in place to protect competition. You got your Windows and Android OS Barons keeping Linux/other off of Tablets and PC/Laptops, Your Cable Barons, charging for access coming and going, and making you buy content you do not want or need. The third party Device OEMs are little more than de facto divisions of the Big OS/CPU Barons, through lack of OS options, and downright arm twisting to remain tied to the OS/CPU barions’ closed ecosystem cash cows. A lot of the new, same as the old, for those that pay no attention to history, and are condemned to relive it. It’s deja vu all over again, bend over and “enjoy”!
I need to move out of this
I need to move out of this joke of a country
So unreal all this is goes on and people are so pathetic not to stand up to this shit
Well, Scott Michaud is one of
Well, Scott Michaud is one of those pathetic people. He half-defends the deal. He concludes that we should “hope” that they don’t act like greedy plutocrats once nobody’s watching.
Frankly, people can whine all they want about politicians but in the end, the people deserve the pols they elect.
I’m continually surprised how many Americans go out on a limb and defend outright thuggery from major corporations, just like Scott did. I’m sure he’d qualify his statements but in the end he’s kinda ok with these oligarchies taking root.
And so are many Americans.
America is the richest country in the world and yet you can barely get uncapped internet.
It’s been a long time since America was viewed as a country you’d want to immigrate to. A lot of people still want to do that, but mostly from poorer places.
Im happy I don’t live there. A bit of a shitty country.
Actually, I am Canadian.
Actually, I am Canadian. Also, I try to look at the situation and call out specific issues. I don't find many with this merger, in isolation.
Oh, I find plenty of issues with telecom and content distribution companies. I just feel that we should choose tact with our battles, rather than be thought of as "crying wolf". That's not to say, "Be quiet until there's a genuine wolf." We just don't want to go DEFCON 1 on every issue.