FCC Approves $1.1B Liberty-GCI Deal

The Federal Communications Commission has approved John Malone’s (Liberty Interactive)  $1.1 billion deal to buy Alaskan cable and phone company General Communication Inc. (GCI). The Justice Department signaled last July it had no antitrust issues with the deal. GCI has about 108,000 cable sub in Alaska and is the state’s largest telephone and wireless company.  The FCC imposed no conditions in granting the application, saying it posed no potential harms to the public interest. In the same order it denied the petitions to deny or condition the deal. The FCC said the harm asserted in those petitions was speculative and the conditions proposed unrelated to the transaction.