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Justice Department may try to block the Comcast / TWC merger

It's been more than a year since Comcast announced its plan to buy fellow cable giant Time Warner Cable in a $45 billion deal, but it still hasn't received the blessings of various regulators. Now, word is leaking out from unnamed sources to Bloomberg and the New York Times that suggests Justice Department lawyers will recommend blocking the merger. Many consumer groups, politicians and executives from other companies have raised concerns over the last year that the combination would put too many customers, and too much of the nation's internet under one banner, despite a promise by Comcast to divest itself of some 3 million customers. Facing so much negative attention, Comcast is trying to improve customer service and reassure skeptics that it will be a friendly giant telecommunications company, but hasn't had much success convincing anyone that its plan will make cable TV better.

The NYT report mentions that while Comcast could potentially negotiate potential conditions to place on the deal -- a key part of its NBCUniversal acquisition a few years ago -- that process hasn't started yet with the Justice Department or the FCC. Execs for both companies are still publicly confident the deal will go through, and fellow cable giant Charter has already made alternative acquisition plans. No one knows how long it may take for the various reviews to come to a conclusion, and even if the report recommends blocking the deal, it could be overruled by the division's senior officials. For now, we wait, but an update could come when TWC reports its quarterly earnings April 30th, or during Comcast's earnings report May 4th.