Mediagazer: Comcast Agrees to Buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 Billion (Bloomberg)

5:10 PM ET, February 13, 2014

Top News:

Time Warner Cable To Merge With Comcast Corporation To Create A World-Class Technology And Media Company — Strategic Combination Will Accelerate Delivery of Comcast's Technologically Advanced Products and Services to Time Warner Cable's Customers — Transaction Creates Multiple Pro-Consumer …

Om Malik / Gigaom:

Comcast and Time Warner Cable: Forget TV, it is all about broadband — If it is allowed to gobble up its number two rival, Time Warner Cable, Philadelphia-based Comcast will become the largest broadband provider in the United States, and perhaps the largest outside China.

Susan Crawford / Bloomberg:

Comcast's Time Warner Deal Is Bad for America — David Cohen, Comcast Corp.'s executive vice president and the mastermind behind its deal to buy Time Warner Cable Inc., sounded pugnacious and confident on a recent conference call with investors. Regulatory and antitrust approval of the deal …

Discussion: Guardian, TVNewser, Guardian, The New York Observer, Mashable, @dankennedy_nu, @stevenlevy, @stevenlevy, @kpkelleher, Consumerist and Gigaom

Bloomberg:

Comcast Agrees to Buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 Billion — Comcast Corp. agreed to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. for $45.2 billion, combining the two largest U.S. cable companies in an all-stock transaction. — Investors of New York-based Time Warner Cable will receive 2.875 new Comcast stock …

Heidi Moore / Guardian:

The Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger is not a marriage made to last — Two troubled giants, loathed by the public and facing plummeting profits, are heralding a brighter future. Don't believe the hype — In mergers, as in marriage, the couple may be running toward each other - or away from something else.

Discussion: Corporate Intelligence, MoneyBeat, @moorehn and Digits

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Local stations ‘have reason to sweat’ over Comcast-Time Warner deal — Comcast announced Tuesday it intends to purchase Time Warner Cable for about $45 billion. — Such a merger “may have little impact on consumers,” David Gelles writes in The New York Times.

Discussion: Gigaom, BuzzFeed, NewsBusters blogs and The Newspaper Guild

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:
Time Warner Cable CEO Sells Company a Month Into Term: ‘This Transaction Seems Very Natural to Me’

Discussion: Mediawire Daily and @edmundlee

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:
Comcast claims competition from Google Fiber, Netflix & Hulu are reasons to approve merger

Discussion: UPROXX, Forbes, @notsalome, @gigaom, Vanity Fair, The Verge, Republic Report and @agolis

Lance Ulanoff / Mashable: The National Domination of Comcast and Time Warner in 1 Map

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Comcast lists all the ways a merger with Time Warner is “pro-consumer”

Discussion: Forbes and Fast Company

Wall Street Journal:
Comcast, Time Warner Deal to Spark Regulatory Debate, Outcome Uncertain

Discussion: Re/code, @brkend, @wsjd and GeekWire

Peter Weber / The Week:
There's no way Comcast will buy Time Warner Cable

Discussion: Forbes, Gigaom, Capital New York, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker Blog, @tthornb and DealBook

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

NBC executives tout Oympics gains, acknowledge critiques, study for 2016 — The chairman of NBC Sports, Mark Lazarus, remains adamant that timeshifting and subsequently cutting down the Sochi Olympic opening ceremonies was a good idea. — “I continue to believe, having now been in the stadium …

Discussion: Latest News & Headlines, Mediaite, Forbes, @mikenizza, The Wrap and The Huffington Post

Chris Gayomali / Fast Company:
The Death Of The Spoiler Alert?

Discussion: TVNewser, @kpfallon, Variety, @niemanlab and USA Today

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

The Guardian signs seven-figure deal to build on ‘shared values’ and provide branded content for Unilever — Guardian News and Media has signed a seven-figure deal to provide branded content for household goods giant Unilever. — It is the first deal for the new Guardian Labs division …

Discussion: GNM press office, @whatthebit, @niemanlab, The Dish, Guardian, @raju and @loismcewan

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

FCC Backs Off Study of Newsroom Editorial Practices — The Federal Communications Commission is quietly changing course on a controversial study after parts of the methodology were roundly criticized by GOP lawmakers and commissioner Ajit Pai for encroaching into editorial decisions and content at TV stations.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review

Hu Shuli / Nieman Reports:

Notes toward an independent, commercially viable news organization — Notes toward an independent, commercially viable news organization — Technology development has been reshaping the media industry worldwide. In developed countries like the United States, traditional media companies felt …

Discussion: @davidbarboza2

Hu Yong / Nieman Reports: China's market-oriented media face a precarious future

Kim Willsher / Guardian:

Libération editor resigns after journalists go on strike — Nicolas Demorand was embroiled in row with newsroom staff over shareholders' vision for future of French leftwing paper — The editor of France's Libération daily newspaper has resigned, saying after journalists went on strike …

Discussion: Guardian and @jayrosen_nyu

Alastair Reid / Journalism.co.uk:

How digital weighs up against print for UK magazine circulations — New data from the Audit Bureau of Circulation reports combined digital and print sales for the first time with print still dominating, for now — The Audit Bureau for Circulation (ABC) has released the first ever combined print …

Discussion: mUmBRELLA and Guardian

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

New York Times Magazine editor search nears end — The hunt for the next editor of The New York Times Magazine is entering the home stretch, Capital has learned. — Sources familiar with the process said the search has been narrowed down to a handful of internal and external candidates …

Associated Press:

Negatives Aside, AOL CEO Posts Positive Results — NEW YORK (AP) — You've got gaffes. — AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong isn't one to mince words. Over the weekend, he apologized for insensitive comments and backtracked from an unpopular plan to pay matching 401(k) retirement contributions in a lump sum at the end of the year.

Discussion: Mediawire Daily

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Reporters condemn Senate for silent vote — The Capitol Hill press corps is strongly condemning how the Senate handled a critical roll call vote on raising the debt ceiling Wednesday. — During a highly dramatic vote, the Senate clerk remained silent as senators submitted their votes …

Discussion: Roll Call and @apandrewtaylor

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Buzzfeed Getting 100 Million Monthly Views on YouTube, Steinberg — PALM SPRINGS, CA - Buzzfeed has quickly established a big video footprint and is getting 100 million monthly views on YouTube, says Jon Steinberg, President and COO, in this video interview with Beet.TV

Thanks:@beet_tv