bosworth indicated conversations stalled as a result of the comcast transaction. that couldn't be further from the truth. between signing and ultimate closing of the transaction, we are obviously acting on our own to make all of those such decisions. it would be inappropriate for us to be consulting at all with comcast. so any decisions we make, we will make on our own and it will be made on a price value relationship for our customers taking into consideration things like overall programming costs and bandwidth constraints that we have. >> all right. i'm going to let senator -- i'm sure we're going to have more questions here for the record, but i'll let senator lee say some closing comments. >> got about 30 or 40 questions that i'd like to ask. but given that the eighth amendment does have some application here, i'm going to forgo those. i want to thank our witnesses for coming today. neither chairwoman klobuchar nor i had any expectations by the end of this hearing we'd have everyone singing on the same page so that part is not surprising, but your testimony ha

transaction. there are no competition issues in that market, either. mr. chairman, comcast represents the american dream. we were founded 50 years ago with 1200 customers in tupelo, mississippi. we've always strived to invest, innovate and lead our industry with a focus on the consumer. if this transaction is approved, it will give us the scale and reach to innovate and compete against our national and global competitors. thank you for the opportunity to testify. >> thank you very much. and as per our normal procedure the full statements, and of course you have a longer statement, full statements will be made part of the record of each of the witnesses. next witness is arthur minson, executive vice president and chief financial officer of time warner cable. he oversees all of time warner cable's financial functions, including its financial operations, financial planning, analysis, treasury, accounting, tax, mergers and acquisitions, internal audit, investor relations. please go ahead, mr. minson. >> mr. chairman, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity t

transaction. there are no competition issues in that market either. mr. chairman comcast represents the american dream. we were founded 50 years ago with 1200 customers in tupelo mississippi. we have always tried to invest innovative leader industry with a focus on the consumer. if this transaction is approved it will give us the scale and reach to innovate and compete against our national and global competitors. thank you for the opportunity to testify. >> thank you very much and as per our normal procedure the full segment of course the longer segment, the full statement will be made part of the record for each of the witnesses. our next witness is arthur manson executive vice president chief financial officer at time warner cable. he oversees the financial cable functions including financial operations financial planning treasury accounting tax mergers and acquisitions and investor relations. please go ahead mr. manson. >> mr. chairman and members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. i'm pleased to be here to discuss the proposed tran

transaction. there are no competition issues in that market, either. mr. chairman, comcast represents the american dream. we were founded 50 years ago with 1200 customers in tupelo, mississippi. we've always strived to invest, innovate and lead our industry with a focus on the consumer. if this transaction is approved, it will give us the scale and reach to innovate and compete against our national and global competitors. thank you for the opportunity to testify. >> thank you very much. and as per our normal procedure the full statements, and of course you have a longer statement, full statements will be made part of the record of each of the witnesses. next witness is arthur minson, executive vice president and chief financial officer of time warner cable. he oversees all of time warner cable's financial functions, including its financial operations, financial planning, analysis, treasury, accounting, tax, mergers and acquisitions, internal audit, investor relations. please go ahead, mr. minson. >> mr. chairman, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity t

bosworth indicated conversations stalled as a result of the comcast transaction. that couldn't be further from the truth. between signing and ultimate closing of the transaction, we are obviously acting on our own to make all of those such decisions. it would be inappropriate for us to be consulting at all with comcast. so any decisions we make, we will make on our own and it will be made on a price value relationship for our customers taking into consideration things like overall programming costs and bandwidth constraints that we have. >> all right. i'm going to let senator -- i'm sure we're going to have more questions here for the record, but i'll let senator lee say some closing comments. >> got about 30 or 40 questions that i'd like to ask. but given that the eighth amendment does have some application here, i'm going to forgo those. i want to thank our witnesses for coming today. neither chairwoman klobuchar nor i had any expectations by the end of this hearing we'd have everyone singing on the same page so that part is not surprising, but your testimony ha

one of the things we saw in the comcast/nbc u.s. transaction was they wanted them to not use conditions in a particularly aggressive way. it was conservative argument against heavy-handed government regulation. the interesting parallel here is that while nbc and time warner cable are very different transactions, chairman tom wheeler before he got to the commission wrote a lot about the importance of merger conditions. it came up quite regularly during his appearances on capitol hill before his confirmation. plenty of republicans asked him whether he felt his previous writings were correct that, you know, the fcc could stimulate big market changes when it comes to big transactions. and so wheeler's going to be in the spot here. it hasn't really started yet. we've only heard murmurs from republicans, but if the ncc looks like -- fcc looks like it might use pretty serious conditions, you could see a bit of a clash between the agency and capitol hill. of. >> host: tony romm with politico, thanks for being on "the communicators." >> guest: thanks fo

>> comcast said it would provide the transaction to time warner and that expires in a few short years. the fcc's open internet rules are in legal jeopardjeopardy. cohen is saying you don't need a strong condition because the fcc will figure out how to address net new tratralitnewtrality. >> host: senator franken talked about a hundred plus lobbest do you see them up there? >> they are out there a lot. the house and sentate committees did a study and comcast gave to all but a small member of numbers. it is even outside of washington. i went to philadelphia where comcast is based and city councils and individual proposals in the state house. $50,000 to pennsylvania governor tom coberrbit. and shelled out money defeat a paid sick pay leave in the city. and you can find them from california to chicago all the way to washington, d.c. there is a lot for opponents to overcome. public knowledge and free press have started making noise but the question is will comcast drown it out given the amount it spends and the ability to talk >> and you asked about privacy legislation. where does that sta

but i think the most important thing for your viewers to understand is that comcast, as part of this transaction important market it is acquiring from time warner cable, namely, new york and l.a. the stuff that comcast really wanted when it went to acquire time warner cable, it is keeping assets and not selling them and spinning them off. they will have assets in michigan, minnesota, indiana, alabama, eastern tennessee, kentucky, wisconsin. they are not the key markets they cared about. they want to control the major cities in the united states. >> do you center a good feel for what spin co.does, rich? >> $2.5 million assets. publicly traded. we have lost some of the smaller cable operators. >> they want to offload a lot of the comcast debt onto this company, right? how does it work? >> it actually seems like it will be relatively similarly leveraged the way a charter is leveraged. this will be around five-times leverage. this seems like a reasonable leverage for a smaller cable operator. again, the exact level of clustering and how good the systems are they are putting in, it's a little hard to

comcast ultimately. we are very disciplined in the way in which we think about financial transactions. we want to make sure anything we do benefits shareholders and it is suggestional under oprationale sense. we would never want to take away from the operational team we have at comcast. but focused on the future of the company, and our balance sheet and brian loves to ask, we are comfortable where we have are today, but five and ten years from now what will the landscape look like? the additional scale that comes from this transaction gives us the ability to continue to invest in innovation and rnd to stay ahead and deliver a high quality, appropriate priced video, high-speed data and telephone services to residential and business customers and brian keeps our eyes focused on that ball in a great way. it is that frame of how do we continue to be competitive and impactful with the balance sheet and operational excellance on both sides of the table. >> host: i want to ask you about other questions. pairing grements that the the wave of the future? >> -- >> guest: it is the way of the past

what's important about this in the context of the comcast/twc transaction, one of the big issues in washingtononopoly. if you see other companies regulating like this, innovating, it may suggest to the regulators there is competition out there and people are continuing to innovate. >> are you seriously going to argue when these two companies don't operate in any of the same geographic areas, you think there's going to be an issue here? >> what you've seen -- >> only one senator said he was going to block it. the guy who wouldn't be a senator if it wasn't for "saturday night live" and nbc is the one person who said he'd block it, al franken. what's in it for me? would he be senator if he wasn't on "saturday night live"? >> no. the tea leaf suggests the deal is going to move forward. all i'm suggesting is that -- >> the tea leaves. >> behind the scenes there are arguments that it could potentially be anti-competitive, one being innovation won't be as fast as you might expect. this is one of those points that people will look to and say, there's innovation going on in north carolina, that could s

transaction. there are no competition issues in that market either. >> no accommodation at all, that is the company line from comcastexecutive vice president reiterated that customers would not be heard. >> there is nothing in this transaction that would cause anyone's cable bill to go up. i have a nasty little habit of telling the truth, and when i was asked whether people's cave -- cable bills was going to go down i said i could not make that commitment. but between the synergies in this deal and whatever marginal additional leverage we might have in programming and quitman supply purchasing, whatever economic benefits are generated -- equipment supply purchasing, whatever economic benefits are generated will ultimately go to the consumers. >> there is going to be, obviously, some concern. >> i am against this deal. i believe it does not meet either test. resultve this deal will in fewer choices, higher prices, and even worse service for my constituents. >> companies have to enter special agreements to ensure adequate quality of video streaming service. i worry about the potential impacts on other types of service

market and it further underscores why there shouldn't be any material concern about the comcast-time warner transaction because there is nothing but more different and more interesting competition that is coming in this space down the road >> david cohen, executive vice president of comcast. >> the committee will hold a hearing on the comcast-time warner merger and the affect on consumers. >> a panel of academics and journalist look at the role of u.s. tax policy and debate ways to improve the current system. the urban institute hosted this. it is about an hour and hamp. -- half -- >> welcome to the urban-brookings tax policy. we are going to be talking about tax reform which is the holy grail of tax policy. it is sought after. there are rumored sighting all of the time. there have been recent tigsights like tom camp and ron whiten promises after extending the 5,000 stupid tax extenders for the last time there will be tax reform and it will never happen again. president obama called a tax reform commission, president bush called it. their independent tax reform commissions. we have lots of commissions

you see comcast in the middle of a major transaction to get even bigger.le are a small provider, you worry about the leverage you have when it comes time to renegotiate transmission fees. you would like to not have to pay them or be able to pay fewer if that is the end result of what happens in court. we will see. >> do we have any sense of how the high court might rule? >> there is limited information based on previous rulings. we have seen justices about 10 years ago consider some of these issues in terms of internet filesharing and music. we had justices with different perspectives on this issue or variances of this issue. lower court judges have disagreed on this. from the outside, it appears to be a case that could go either way. >> that decision is expected in july. good to see you. tomorrow, betty liu will be live in washington with an exclusive interview with the aereo ceo as he takes on the broadcasters at the supreme court. that is coming up on tuesday at 8:00 new york time. coming up, high yield bonds and loans may have trailed equities in 2013.

comcast, david cohen. i want to share with you what he had to say about competition concerns over the deal. >> this particular transaction actually raises few competition concerns. the number one reason why is and conquest -- comcast they do not compete against each other in an area. the transaction will not lead to any reduction in consumer choice to any market. >> do you believe it will not result in reduction? absolutely, but that is a red herring. he is talking about cable service and the solution will be internet service. comcast has 40% of the internet provision market. you put that together with time warner cable and they will have close to 50 at a lot of people are saying they will be 60% if you look at fast rod band. >> that makes them almost a monopoly. >> a monopoly of internet service. comcast and top -- and time warner both know and everybody in cable knows there may be five years left of cable and it will all shift to the internet. >> that is another conversation we will get to. why should they be willing to go forward with the merger if this is a company that will have so much control? -- is therehome harm

a top executive from comcast says that is because the competitive landscape is changing. >> while this transactionwill make us bigger that is a good thing, not a problem. most of our real competitors are national and global and larger than us, like the bells, satellite companies, apple, google, sony and netflix. >> however, critics repeatedly pointed to comcast ownership of nbc universal. and the potential to levy that. >> so it could undermine the new innovative options that consumers are seeing. comcast, with its control of video and high speed broadband adding time warner systems could lock in high prices for nbc, programming, and sports and regional sports and cable programming. >> the real audience for today's hearing, top regulators and lawyers at the fcc and justice department. they will have the final word on one of the biggest proposed media mergers in history. for "nightly business report," i'm hampton pearson. >>> and we should point out that comcast is the parent company of cnbc which produces this program. >>> and coming up, why a small fraction of doctors get a big payment from medic

reduced choices for customers. >> is proposed transaction consolidates too much power in the combined video and high-speed internet market, giving comcast a virtual gatekeeper role for fast internet delivered video and innovative in services. before antitrust officials into medication regulators is really very copper at very simple. if we want more innovative, low-priced internet delivered services, this merger must be rejected. >> the merger hearings continue today in the house. the justice department and the fcc will have final say on whether the merger is approved. senate republicans have blocked a measure aimed at narrowing the pay gap between men and women will stop the paycheck fairness act would let workers compare salaries without the threat of retaliation and force companies to explain pay disparities. but democrats failed to clear the 60-vote threshold after failing to win any republican support. democrats say they will reintroduce the bill later this year. numeral's on racial profiling by the fbi are will reportedly keep a number of tactics in place. reports york times" proposed revisions would preserve many, if not all polic

comcast says netflix's opposition to our time warner cable transaction is based on inaccurate claims and arguments. there's no company that's had a stronger commitment to the openness than comcast. we're the only isp that is currently bound by the net neutrality rules. we'll have much more on netflix and comcast throughout the show. they are scheduled to release quarterly results this morning as well. >> netflix is a competitor to comcast as well. >> yes. content company. >> that's what you'd expect him to say. >> originally because of the deal that was struck between netflix and comcast in terms of paying for faster access to it. >> he likes what he got to some extent. these are all -- none of these things are that surprising. >> no. >> that he would weigh in like that. i thought it was damning with praise, you know. if anyone would own 50% -- >> he said 60%. >> he's saying brian is a good guy but -- it's all sort of a par for the course. and of course there's going to be -- i'm not going to be a defender. comcast said there would be a lot of things that would happen with charter or

comcast executive vp david cohen found himself defending his company's pricing policy before lawmakers. >> there is nothing in this transactionhat will cause cable bills to go up. i have a nasty habit of telling the truth. when asked if cable bills will go down, i said i can't make that commitment. but with whatever economic benefits generated it will ultimately go to the consumers. >> cable has been consolidated for two decades. they've merged into four national players today. comcast, time warner, charter and cox. now at the same time cable faces growing competition by satellite tv, and the two biggest satellite tv services, directv and dish are said to be in their own talks. with customers migrating more to the digital space to view their media content, we explain. >> comcast is the nation's largest cable provider. taking over time warner would give the company 30 million subscribers, dwarfing the competition, but dominating the cable landscape may not add up to much in the end. >> you have to wonder if they're trying to be the biggest in a declining industry. the people are pulling the plug and they're going to other ways

there is nothing in this transaction that will cause anyone's cable prices to go up. do you believe cohen's commitment? do consumers trust comcast when they promise that there is not a way for the cable prices to go up through the steel? >>-- this deal? >> i don't know how he says that when in one of his first phone calls about this deal, he says prices may go up faster than they have before. that seems contradictory to what he said right at the outset. aboutcast has talked giving up some of its subscribers on the cable side to ameliorate concerns to the fcc, to keep under that 30 threshold folks of talked about for a long time. is that enough here? is giving up some subscribers enough to address your concerns about comcast's bigness? >> that 30% threshold was about one sector. they will have a 30% threshold on cable tv. they will have a bigger threshold on cable internet. and then, plus that, they have 12% to 13% of all programming. the original 30% was about having it in one sector, like cable tv. that is very different when you have all of these pieces that you are putting together, and that you can leverage. they have shown

i appreciate that comcast agreed to be bound by the fcc's open internet rules as part of the nbc universal transaction. it's an important commitment. especially now that core elements of the open internet order have been struck down. the commission that currently apply to comcast should not be seen as the end point but rather the minimum level, minimum level of protection. should apply to promote competition online. and regardless of the outcome of this latest merger i hope that comcast will accept the extension of these rules beyond 2018. but still i urge them to support stronger rules that protect consumers and drive innovation. and the recent interconnection between comcast and netflix also raises important questions for advocates of net neutrality. when ipss can charge tolls and block access to networks, net neutrality policies may no longer be enough to protect consumers, or promote open internet. companies have to enter special agreements to ensure adequate quality of their streaming video service. i worry about the potential impact on other band width intensive services. one i think of that wor

groups told lawmakers a bigger comcast would have free rein to raise cable rates as well as too much leverage over what americans watch on television and online. >> the transactionould fundamentally undermine the new wonderful innovative options consumers are seeing. comcast wits control of video and high speed broadband adding time warner's systems could locked in high prices for nbcu programming and sports and regional sports and cable programming. >> now lawmakers, of course, don't decide whether the deal wins approval. that's the job of top regulators and lawyers at the fcc and justice department, but at today's hearing we did get an opportunity for comcast and time warner to defend their deal and opponent to put all their issues on the table. kell? >> hampton, thank you very much. as the case -- as the case giant media merger waits approval, one executive is speaking out in strong support of the deal. >> with more let's bring in jerry levin, the former chairman and ceo of time warner. it's great to see you again. >> thank you, scott. >> why are you supporting this deal that some say is, you know, too big, not good for consumers? >> i think it's a good oppor

comcast executives testified before the senate judiciary committee wednesday. telling the senators that buying time warner would mean more competition in the marketplace. "while this transaction will make us bigger, that's a good thing and not a problem. most ofour real competitors are national and global and larger than us -- like the bellls, satellite companies, apple, google sony and netflix." comcast executives could not guarantee that cable prices would do anything but go up. senator patrick leahy of vermont, chair of the committee, voiced concerns about the possible merger and the lack of competition in the cable t-v- marketplace. medicare is becoming more transparent for the first time in decades as figures on doctor compensation are released. data from 20-12 finds of 77 billion dollars in federal spending...payments topping 10 million dollars each went to only seven doctors. the top 2% of doctors in the system made a total of 15 billion dollars. doctors tell abc news they dispute the data because they say much of the money goes to drug companies. teens are pulling back on prom spending. a survey by visa shows the average american high schooler will plunk down $978 dol

. >> but comcast executive vice president says franken is wrong. thisere is nothing in transactionhat will cause anyone's cable bills to go up. he did go on to say that this transaction will "make us bigger " and that is a good thing, not a problem. >> of course he said that. >> i'm not sure that is what you want to say before the congressional committee. >> look at the man behind the curtain. >> i don't think it is about the cost of things going up. i'm worried about what will go in in terms of content. you own the base of subscribers and all that broadband, then you can control what is going to go into that pipeline and which ones you make more money on, and skew it one way or another. there's only so much on 10th i can go in those pipelines. much content that can go into those pipelines. there was a start golf network, for example, that was saying they would have a tougher time getting on compared to the golf network. you owned 40% of the broadband access in this country, i don't care about cable. you can live without cable. au cannot live without broadband internet connection.

significant benefits that are offered by this transaction and to tell the that consumers can expect to be better off as a result of a combination of comcastnd time warner cable. >> but critics are ready to have there's day as well, and the prospect for a fight is one reason why shares of both of the companies have been down since this deal was first announced in february. the senatee before judiciary committee again tomorrow. they will have the chance to offer their say on the combination. >> what are the criticisms we are likely to hear tomorrow? tofirst off, they are likely run into hot water over problems with comcast controlling the broadband is this, not so much the cable business. the combined company will control about 40% of the broadband market. that is too much, say some of its critics. and another thing to watch closely is content, whether comcast will give preference to its own programming over competitors. one example is there is an aspiring golf network to be competitive with the golf channel that is owned by comcast. that is one issue to watch. at the end of the day, comcast is confident in steel and that it will pass regul

. >> comcast has response to that, quote, netflix's opposition to our time warner cable transaction isased on inaccurate can claims and arguments. there has been no company that has had a stronger commitment to openness of the internet than comcast and we are the only isp in the country legally bounded by the fcc's vacated neutrality rules. one of the benefits will be the extension of net neutrality protections to millions of additional americans. it was hastings' fiercest statements. >> he cites at&t as being the slow one. brilliant by reed. what he's saying is listen, congress you're going to bless this thing, throw us a bone, man. come on, give us a little juice. don't -- otherwise comcast is too powerful. i thought it was a completely gratuitous attempt by reid to make more money of which he will be able to get. my favorite line what was an amazing conference call other than he said listen, think france won't like pus? the mentalist is the biggest thing, said with a little irony. total addressable market which we always talk about. how about human beings that enjoy tv shows and mov

comcast and time warner cable. the marriage of the two cable giants will give consumers fewer options, raise prices and reduce service, but the companies say that is not so. >> this is not a challenging transaction from an antitrust perspective. our companies serve distinct jeer graphic areas. we don't compete for customers anywhere. it will not lead to reduction of consumer choice in any market. let's go to technology reporter with the "washington post," good to talk to you. you were there for a lot of this. my concern would be, and i think i'm channeling a lot of folks when i tick off this list. too much consolidation of this business in the hands of comcast. i like competition but it keeps the governor on prices. i'm concerned if the merger goes forward, the cost of the service is going to go up. how did comcast address those concerns today? >> reporter: well, interestingly the executive vice president, who is testifying in the senate, did not make assurances that prices would not go up. and the way he said it, he said i just can't promise that that's not going to happen. that was a question that was in answer to a question directly asked by senate lawmakers. that is the nub of the concern th

comcast' $45 million purchase of times warner. it was said that the merger would mean fewer options, higher prices and reduced service for customers. company executives said it was not true. >> this is not a challenging transaction from an antitrust perspective. the company served separate areas. we don't compete for customers anywhere. the transaction will not lead to a reduction in competition or consumer choice in any market. >> if approved by the justice department and the fcc, the merged company will serve a third of the house honds and 30% of homes with broadband and internet. >> he says he's tired of hiding. a young athlete in massachusetts is making history. derrick gordon is the first openly gay player in division one of men's basketball. ross shimabuku is here to tell us his story. >> in the past year you had jason collins, football player michael sam, and now derrick gordon. the university of massachusetts basketball player decided to come out. he shared his story with sid ziegler. earlier tonight i got a chance to speak with sid ziegler, about the change in derrick gordon's demeanour since announcing he was gay. >> in his words it was indescribable - i asked him last wednesday, and when i was with hi

comcast executives making the case. this is good for consumers, or access to faster broadband, more choices. this is not going to be anti-competitive. here is david cohen. a challenging transactionany serves separate and distinct geographic areas. we do not compete for customers anywhere. lead tosaction will not reduction in competition or consumer choice in any market. >> we have also heard from witnesses that said the combined size of the company makes it a behemoth in the business. it will control 40% of the national broadband market. it will also control content. we have heard from content providers that comcast will act as judge and jury in determining the success of their business going forward. a consumer advocate urged the panel to get regulators to say no to this deal. >> the issue is very simple. if we want more innovative, low priced internet delivered services, this merger must be rejected. no member of this panel said they oppose this deal out right, but they have some tough questions. the questions are being listened to very carefully. even if there is real skepticism, what could the outcome be? what could we see as the takeaway? is most important is you get a sens

comcast too much power, too much market share. >> an incredibly busy monday. we need to get you up to speed right now on this monday morning on where we are in the transaction frenzynear 100 billion-dollar transaction with the united kingdom. immelt else -- jeffrey is in paris, speaking with francois hollande. jeffrey mccracken, the adult in the room, managing editor of mergers and acquisitions and public offerings for bloomberg world news worldwide and we are honored he could take 10 minutes out of his busy schedule this morning. have you ever seen at this silly? >> no, the animal spirits are really back. a lot of this is pent-up demand. we have always had tons of cash sitting in balance sheets offshore or in the united states. he have had investor support for deals. guy doing thehe deal, the one spending the billions, you have got that combination and it seems like the c suite, they are not as nervous as they were. they were always eyeing deals, they now seem more willing to go ahead. >> my sense of the value this weekend is that if you do not do your math, you will not get lemon sure. you talk about contingent value rights. what is that? basically a payment bas

transaction. faster broadband, greater network reliability and security, better in home wi-fi, access to a more ubiquitous national wi-fi network, access to comcast revolutionary new x. one video viewing experience, access to greater on demand choices, 50,000 on demand choices, access to, industry leading tv experience where people can view video live and on-demand on portable devices inside the home and outside the home. at the protections of the no blocking and nondiscrimination provisions of the open internet order. a more generic public interest benefits life extension of the internet of essentials program to low income customers of time warner cable extension of our diversity and community investment commitments across the time warner cable footprint. i think consumers are the big winners in this transaction. >> you have also said that you applied the fcc's open internet rules to time warner cable until 2018. will you do it beyond 2018? >> i think the answer to that is we will be doing that between 2018 because we at the fcc have started a proceeding to put in place industrywide open internet protections and i can imagine that the commission

it would involve comcast, the parent of cnbc, investing in 4 million subscribers or 18% of his net worth. stay tuned. we'll have more on this during the break and how the big transactionsut it is valued if not more for men to stay home. >> that is true, but nowhere near the frothy levels back in 2007. so even with everything going on, we are not quite there yet. but these are the big-ticket deals. the volume is down when you look at totals. >> what concerns me is that private equity seems nowhere to be seen in this market. and last year basically tearing my hair out saying this is nothing to combine right now and prices are riding so high, so you have fear in public companies, are they? >> you can get synergies. i'm sure the ceo of ge is thinking about what he can do in impleasanting something to do. private equity if i weies canno synergies. is it pricing up for the equity firms? but then again, when you think about the peak. they are nowhere near that right now. >> it's been a mixed look out there and some of this was not going well and they could be out of a job. it suggests people are bullish about what they can extract. >> it does, although interestingly enough, e

transaction, you know the story. but the numbers from time warner cable are kind of good, surprisingly good for some people, worth noting for some people. the stock is up, i would assume comcastthey added 370,000 tsus. >> how is that possible? how does verizon -- >> most residential adds in seven years. >> what were people doing, rabbit ears? >> no. >> it's not churn. >> but they're coming off of a spillover effect to the cbs dispute which hurt numbers and maybe people coming back. >> right. good point. >> but they didn't see it as much on the actual profit side of things. but that is being seized on certainly as a positive. they're going out on a high note. >> they are. >> keep our eye on the misses. you mentioned 3m today. they keep the year guidance intact. lily, sales plunging on generic competition. one of the leading losers today. >> i was waiting for that to happen. finally happened. lily has been doing so much to bring out value. by the way, 3m, i always look at that and say, wait a second, everyone says miss miss miss. they had 11.2% growth here. earnings per share. you have up margin. organic local currency of 4.6%. committed to r and d. you sell 3m what's it going