that this is not yet a done deal the merger must first be approved by the justice department and federal communications commission to make sure it doesn't violate antitrust laws which could take as long as a year but if the deal goes through it would be an absolute disaster for the. public jon burge mayor an attorney for the consumer rights group public knowledge even went as far as saying that this deal will further cement comcast as quote the bully in the schoolyard able to dictate terms to content creators internet companies and distributors who must access its content by raising the cost of its rivals and business partners and in large comcast would raise costs for consumers would be able to keep others from innovating while facing little pressure to improve its own service and of course this latest merger only tightens the stranglehold of the big six you know the old gospel of companies controlling everything you read here and watch c besides comcast there is disney jones a.b.c. the history channel on e.s.p.n. viacom the parent company of m.t.v. paramount nickelodeon c.b.s. owner of the c.w. and showtime or

this is such a far-reaching deal, it should be dead on gets to the it department of justice and federal communications commissions is the whole shooting match. itis broadband, broadcast, is content, distribution. it is medium and the message. it would confirm control over our systems that no company should have. where prices are going up and competition is going down. comcast just about nbc universal. explain how this works. well, it works through a combination of private sector consolidation that we have seen with this long cycle of approvals by the federal communications commission and the department of justice, blessillllllng all of e deals. comcast just gone through absorbing nbc universal last year, and now they have enough money to go out and buy the second-largest cable company in the united states of america. they might think it is good, and it is good for business, but what this amounts to really is -ization of the internet. if we are so confident in the internet to open the doors of opportunity to everyone, we will allow this all to be controlled by a few gatekeepers who control the distribution and co

a far reaching deal it should be dead on arrival when it gets to the department of justice and the federal communications commissionfor approval but regulators probably will approve the deal because the us government caters to the needs of big business not to the needs of the people it governs it's almost as if they think they're playing around with just a lot of monopoly bodies tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter as the resident. that does it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash our to america check out our website r c dot com and follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez have a wonderful night. wealthy british style. market. can. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports.

and regulators. the department of justice and perhaps even more importantly, the federal communications commission. after i broke the story a few months ago, that com kavpt was interested in looking at time warner cable, i also reported many times that in the eyes of brian roberts, it was a difficult deal to get done, in part because it would simply be hard. hard to deal with the fcc. hard to have to enter into another consent degree, if that wering to happen, yet roberts apparently got comfortable with the idea of buying the entire company, and comfortable with the idea that it will be pro-competitive. >> we don't compete, we're not in the same markets. not in any of the same zip codes, with time warner. there is no overlap. no reduction of competition. we're just able to bring better products to their markets, but what we've said today is that we're prepared to divest up to 3 million customers, which will bring our new company, combined, below 30%, even though that 30% was vacated by the courts. >> referring to subscriber caps that no longer exist allowing you to surpass 30 million homes should t

and what are the chances they will? >> you have three regulatory agencies -- the department of justice, the federal trade commission, and the federal communicationsssion. they have some say in the matter. the fcc big test is if this is in the public interest are i. thatense i am getting is they expect this to ultimately go through despite the size. it will get a lot of scrutiny but these companies might have to give up a few things. comcast might have to give up a few things to get the government green light. in terms of competition, they will be take but they don't directly compete in any of the markets now and that's a big factor for the government, particularly for the department of justice. they might be able to improve pricing power for customers. they might have more control over the programmers and those are two things in their favor. the big issue here is that you number twoone and getting together in the government will look at that and ask for a lot in return. will they ask for so much that they make this deal less attractive to comcast? >> the fcc is expecting a pound of flesh so what do they want? >> we already know that comcast is wi

now rethinking its bid after a surprising amount of pushback from the federal communications commission and the justice departmentvestors trying to gain if they will go through with this deal or if t-mobile remains the number four player in this space because if they can game it, they can make money. if you just knew which way this was going to go. fox business exclusive with robert mcdowell, former fcc commissioner who has been on the inside of these kind of deals. what do you think of the fact now sprint is saying we knew they would be opposition but we didn't know it would be so vocal, the decibels have gotten louder. >> sprint took the unusual move of meeting with the chairman of the fcc's office about a week ago today to try and feel out the sec on what it might do and all the reports coming out or that they were being discouraged from going forward with the transaction. they haven't given up yet. they have charismatic, aggressive leader heading of softbank for japan last year, i don't think he will be very patient with the american regulatory process. liz: he better get ready. you were there when the commis

to be approved certainly the federal communications commission has to take a look at this deal and make sure that it meets the public interest also the department of justice has to review the deal to be sure that it's not anti-competitive that's going to be a year long process there's a number of public interest groups that are involved in the fight people all over the country are very interested in this have seen the year down the road. most likely that's when a decision would be up to a year reagan rather famously in eighty two eighty three stopped in force in the sherman act for all practical purposes which led to this explosion of mergers and acquisition activity was the can they refer to it as the m n a mania you know when you had michael milken and all these guys. they're making the deals in the captains of the universe in this moment consolidation and no president has gone back i mean jimmy carter was the you know presiding over the breakup of a t.n.t. that was initiated i believe by richard nixon was the last president to seriously enforce the sherman act are there sure many problems here you don't want to hear i think this raises clear questions

communicators" at 8 eastern on c-span2. >> senior officials from the justice department, secret service and federal trade commission recently called on congress to pass federal standards for data security breaches. they testified before the senate jewish -- judiciary committee about cyber crime and the recent breaches at target and nieman marcus. in this runs a little under an hour. >> i'd like to ask the witnesses to raise their right hands. do you swear that your testimony will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? thank you. you may be seated. chairwoman ramirez, a commissioner of the federal trade commission since 2010, was appointed chairwoman of the ftc in march 2013. prior to in this, ms. ramirez was a partner in the office of quinn, emanuel, irkhart and sullivan llp in los angeles where she focused her work on matters of intellectual property, antitrust and trademark issues. mr. noonan is the deputy special agent in charge for the secret service's criminal investigative division, cyber operations. he has over 20 years of federal government experience. throughout his career he has initiated and man

face a tough review from the federal communications commission, potentially from the justice department, as well. >> i'm of two minds about this. >> i was an anti-trust voyeur andin the past. i want to see you step up to the plate here and investigate these. really? >> i'm happy to talk about it. >> in this case, you don't think

face a tough review from the federal communications commission, potentially from the justice department, as well. >> i'm of two minds about this. >> i was an anti-trust voyeur and i've given you grief in the past. i want to see you step up to the plate here and investigate these. really? >> i'm happy to talk about it. >> in this case, you don't think this one is a little less -- >> i think we should give full disclosier first. >> comcast is the parent of our company, cnbc. by the way, the ceos of both companies, they were be joining david faber right here on "squawk box" coming up at 7:00 eastern time. >> i've already had -- i was walking and thinking i'm going to leave this show with neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night. and i saw that was written into the prompter and i thought for a second, whose motto is that? >> the post office. >> who wants to compare comcast to the post office? no one wants to be compared to the post office. >> i get my mail every day. you once talked about how effective they were and then we talked about they lose $8 billion a quarter. >> i want the post office toen continue. >> and i certainly don't want to make any postal workers