Comcast Pushes Back Deal Closing Date -- Update

By Shalini Ramachandran 

With only days left in the first quarter, cable giant Comcast Corp. has once again pushed backed the expected closing date for its acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc.

Comcast said in a blog post Wednesday that it now expects the megamerger to close in the middle of the year, a delay from its earlier guidance that the deal would be completed in "early" 2015. Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen said recent regulatory delays, including the Federal Communications Commission's decision this month to pause its informal "shot clock" for completing the review, contributed to the decision to revise the time frame.

Comcast's proposed $45 billion takeover, which would unite the two largest U.S. cable companies and create a behemoth in broadband access and pay television, has been under intense scrutiny from regulators since it was announced more than 13 months ago. The FCC has asked for large amounts of information from the merging parties and their competitors, resulting in millions of pages of documents for the agency to sift through as it weighs whether the deal is in the public interest. The merger will require approval from both the FCC and Justice Department.

One major cause of the delay has been a dispute between big TV channel owners and the FCC over the confidentiality of programmers' contracts with Comcast and other pay-TV providers. AT&T Inc.'s $49 billion deal for DirecTV has also faced delays in the review process due to this dispute, which is playing out in D.C. federal court. In February, the court heard arguments in the case, but it hasn't yet issued a decision. Comcast has said that the court case is a "procedural matter" unrelated to the merits of its Time Warner Cable takeover. The FCC's 180-day review, which would have expired at the end of March, had been put on hold pending the court decision.

As of mid-March, Comcast still hadn't begun the process of negotiating with regulators over conditions for possible approval, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. While AT&T has started those talks, it has yet to tackle major issues, the Journal reported.

Write to Shalini Ramachandran at [e-mail]

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