On 2/13/2013, Comcast Corp said it would buy Time Warner Cable Inc. for $45.2 billion in an all-stock deal that combines the two largest U.S. cable operators.
The combined company would divest 3 million subscribers, about a quarter of Time Warner's 12 million customers. Together with Comcast's 22 million video subscribers, the roughly 30 million total would represent just under 30 percent of the U.S. pay television video market. The new cable giant would tower over its closest video competitor, DirecTV, which has about 20 million video customers.
Such a large cable monopoly would be detrimental to the consumer with higher prices, no cable competition, and declining service due to the amount of customers requiring service.