CNET by Ben Fox Rubin and Marguerite Reardon
Comcast said Friday that it has terminated its $45.2 billion merger plans for Time Warner Cable, with the marriage of the top two cable operations in the US likely quashed by opposition from regulators.
“Today, we move on,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in a short statement. “Of course, we would have liked to bring our great products to new cities, but we structured this deal so that if the government didn’t agree, we could walk away.”
News that the deal was falling apart started to emerge Thursday afternoon, with reports saying that increasing concerns from US regulators would end the tie-up. Earlier in the week, Comcast officials met with the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission to discuss potential concessions in the deal.