Now Comcast is a big company, with about 100,000 employees. I’m sure health care costs have a big impact on their bottom line. But the bottom line impact on Roberts’ personal net worth will be much greater if the federal government, with a big say-so from the US Senate, approves the $13 billion deal.
So Roberts’ heartfelt letter to the president in support of the Democrats’ singular policy issue was the first action he took in what is expected to be a twelve-month regulatory review process. This is an action with absolutely no relevance to the vast intricacies of the merger, but a move that sets a new standard for blatant pandering aimed at a group of people for whom pandering is the new coin of the realm.
Roberts, no stranger to the political world (Politics PA called him one of the “Power 50” in his home state of Pennsylvania, who has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to politicians of both parties, knows that many Democrats in Congress are strongly opposed to further consolidation in the media sector. He is also, undoubtedly, aware that the Obama Administration has expressed its intent to fight large scale mergers that would concentrate power over television, cable and the internet in a few huge companies.
Big Government » Blog Archive » Comcast-NBC Deal: Does the Merger’s Approval Rest on Health Care? .