Comcast Pushes Back Closing for Time Warner Cable Merger to Middle of 2015

By Shalini Ramachandran 

Cable giant Comcast Corp. said Wednesday its expects its merger with Time Warner Cable Inc. to close in the middle of the year, a delay from its earlier guidance that it would be completed in early 2015.

In a blog post, 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 deal, which would unite the two largest U.S. cable companies and create a behemoth in broadband access and pay television, is receiving intense scrutiny from regulators. Regulators have continued to ask for large amounts of information from the merging parties and their competitors.

One major cause of 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 TWC deal.

Write to Shalini Ramachandran at [e-mail]

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