Reject Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, California official says

One of the five California officials who will vote on Comcast's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable says the merger should be rejected.

In a proposed decision released April 10, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Commissioner Mike Florio recommended rejection of the merger. Florio and the other four commissioners are scheduled to hold a public hearing on the matter April 14, and could vote as early as May 21. A California administrative law judge in February recommended approving the merger, but with conditions that Comcast objects to. Florio wants the commission to reject it outright. "The transaction is not in the public interest," Florio's proposed decision says. Florio's concerns include "potential lowering of quality of service and customer service standards to a lower common denominator, an increasing monoculture in the fixed broadband market in California, concerns about privacy, less competition in the special access market, and -- most importantly -- less competition in the broadband market, both the retail segment of that market and the segment that allows edge or content providers to reach retail subscribers." The harms caused by the merger "cannot be fully mitigated" by imposing conditions upon it, Florio argues. Comcast wants approval of the merger without many of the conditions proposed by the administrative law judge.