here we go

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

"Bell Atlantic Corp. said Wednesday it has agreed to
buy Tele-Communications Inc. and Liberty Media Corp. for $21.4 billion
in the second largest corporate deal in U.S. history.."


I have said often that the market place for the home is limited by a
historical unwillingness to spend more than a given % of household income
on communications and entertainment. When the telcos and the cable people
were fighting they could battle for their percentage of that amount of
money. Now since they are merging they will have to figure out new things
to stimulate the house to spend more total money. Maybe we will not have
500 channels of mush after all. Then again they might not see it that way
and try the mush route.