Comcast and TWC will negotiate with officials to save their merger
The merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable is no longer as certain to get approval as it once was, and the two cable giants know it. Wall Street Journal sources understand that the companies will meet with Department of Justice officials this week (the first time they've met since the announcement) in hopes of negotiating concessions and saving the deal. It's not clear what more they'll propose beyond existing offers, although history suggests that they could give up more customers or promise more efforts to expand low-cost internet access.
However, Comcast reportedly won't budge on one area: net neutrality. If the Justice Department asks Comcast to abide by the FCC's utility-like net neutrality rules whether or not they survive legal challenges, the company might just "walk away" from the merger. That's not surprising given the telecom's less-than-kind attitude toward Netflix, but it also suggests that Comcast will only go so far to please regulators when it sits down for talks.
