I just read the Friday article on Comcast in Wall Street Journal. It was a combination piece discussing Comcast opposition to net neutrality and the Comcast proposed acquisition of TimeWarner (WarTime as I call it).
Naturally, the WSJ conflated many points and took a strictly pro-business perspective on the issues.
Leaving the net neutrality topic aside for now, the discussion of the proposed acquisition made me think a bit. The WSJ rehashed the Comcast talking point "the two companies do not compete in any market". This reminded me of John D. Rockefeller and how he built the Standard Oil monopoly to eventually control 90+% of oil in the United States.
He did not do it through buying all the oil wells. Standard Oil became the dominating monopoly by controlling the railroads, pipelines and refining. Back then, if you had an oil well, or 100 oil wells, then you had to pay Standard Oil and the price for your oil was set by Standard Oil.
So, Standard Oil "did not compete in any market" with other oil producers either. It did not need to.
Thus it is with Comcast. If it acquires WarTime and takes control of the Internet "pipes and railroads" to 40% of the US market, including all the major cities, then it won't need to control other content companies.
So, will our corporate sock puppet regulators allow the acquisition to proceed?
My magic 8 ball says: "Signs point to Yes"