Just what we need - an evil telecommunications giant merging with an even eviler cable giant.
So locally generated programming will henceforth be known as the “Open Access of Evil” ? :eek:
I just don’t get this whole merger thing. Why do two huge companies, making huge profits, need to merge into a huger company?
If a company is successful, with all the employees and officers making lots of money, why isn’t that enough?
I guess I just don’t understand business.
You ninny, this is capitalism. There’s no such thing as enough.
I work for a guy (he’s 87, BTW) who’s worth at least $40,000,000 and he still does whatever is possible to cut costs and increase profits. Apparently, once you get rich, it’s never enough.
I think it is more people who can get rich are driven to do things like this. I mean if people who are easily content are in charge it isn’t going to progress much. You need driven people.
Oh and I like AT&T. This may be because around here (Boulder) the other option is Qwest. You have not seen the face of evil in business until you have dealt with Qwest.
Oh please. If you want to live in a country where what you’re allowed to do is based upon what you need, there’s a nice li’l island about 90 miles south of Florida which would fit the bill. Of course, beware that you may end up wanting to sneak out and raft back up here.
I’m sick of this “corporations are eeeeeeeeeeevil because they’re greeeeeeeeedy” bullshit. AT&T and Comcast are in the business of making money for their shareholders. If the management of those companies believes in good faith this merger will raise the price of shares of AT&T and Comcast, then it’s the right thing for them to do. If the managers are doing this for personal gain and it will actually hurt stockholders, then they should be tossed out and prosecuted for securities fraud or some such. Jeez…I can’t believe you think there’s something wrong with two groups of people putting their own fucking money together.
Yeah! Love it or leave it, you pinko punks!!
:rolleyes:
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be rich. Unless you’re one of the several thousand employees who will be cut to pay for the merger. There WILL be jobs lost.
A little evil never hurt anybody.
Yep, so now they can fire thousands of employees who worked at those companies to put bread on the table so their shares will go up 2 percent. Sure, there are a couple of average Joe six packs out there with a couple of shares who might make a couple of bucks, but most of those shareholders are soulless, rich pricks who have more money then they could ever possibly need.
I can’t believe we’ve still got mergers going on right now. I thought we’d see sort of a voluntary moratorium after some of the really bad ones made in the 90s.
Since when is a person required to have a “soul” or a “need” to take advantage of capitalism?
As soon as I saw the thread title I thought of Comcast. Evil bastards. Cable deregulation in Northern VA, my kingdom for cable deregulation in Northern VA! They are so miserably incompetent. It took them three tries to activate the cable in my apartment because the first two guys the sent didn’t know how!! This is activate, by the way, not install…the apartment came cable ready. Morons! And I’ve got other stories, like the time they cut everyone else’s cable in the building to fix my neighbor’s. Gah! I can’t even speak rationally about them. I hate them so. We drove by their headquarters a few months back and my roommate and I considered throwing rocks through their windows just to show our digust (well, jokingly…sort of). I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate Comcast. But I need ESPN and Comedy Central more. So I’m stuck. Dang it.
AT&T I like though. Gave me the best deal on long distance. And they are handling my cell service and doing a fantastic job. So yes. Maybe they will have a good influence on Comcast and teach them, you know, customer service and competence or something.
Bastards! I’m still angry.
So now business should be run based on what will provide people with jobs, even at the cost of efficiency, eh? Like all those farmers who use tractors, think of all the labor jobs that were lost with that whole mechanization thing! The horror! Won’t someone please think of the children?
Oh, and what does need have to do with anything? Do you want to live in a society where things are based on need? Fucking idiot.
No, now efficiency should be defined as whatever it takes to cause a quarterly blip in stock prices and enhance the pocketbooks of a select group of senior management. Maybe AT&T/Comcast will work out as swimmingly as AOL/Time-Warner or MCI/Worldcomm, but if history is any guide, now is the time to dump all those cable stocks. Anything less would amount to corporate welfare.
Does anyone remember the day when anti trust laws actually meant something? Sheesh these mergers are growing arms all over their respective industries. I dont like all this market power being concentrated in one location, not good on a lot of levels.
A lot of it is driven by the board of directors and senior management who get “fuck you” money out of driving such a deal. Arco/BP merger was a case in point. Doesn’t matter if tens of thousands of employees get screwed, as long as the top dogs make their millions out of buyout bonus then it’s okay
Ahh, but here is the rub. Do they “in good faith” really believe that? And, is their “good faith” based on wishful thinking heavily tilted by what they, themselves, are going to get out of it, personally?
I have no opinion on this specific merger, yet, as I have not seen the details. I also have no “mergers are evil” (or “capitalists are evil”) tilt to my own thoughts. However, I do tend to believe that mergers are often a way for mediocre captains of industry to pump up the stock for a quarter or a year (to boost their perks) with no thought to the corporate development in five years or for some indeterminate future.
The idea that capitalism is inherently evil is (IMNSHO) foolish. The idea that anything that some corporate muck-a-muck decides must be good, simply because he is a high muck-a-muck is also foolish. Anybody ever here of a little company called Enron? They built themselves into a world power by sucking smaller companies into their conglomerate. (Of course they had to juggle some books to keep it going, but such is life–no harm done.)
I’m just wondering if anyone actually remembers what a “trust” actually is.