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LG G4 review: Almost the same phone with a new number attached to it

National Post Tech Desk - Wed, 05/27/2015 - 12:39

With the G4, LG has opted for the incremental upgrade strategy many other major smartphone manufacturers have adopted with their 2015 flagship smartphones.

This means it isn’t necessarily a bad smartphone if you didn’t own the nearly identical LG G3. But if you’re looking to upgrade to LG’s latest device from a G3, then the G4 isn’t worth shelling out hundreds of dollars for. LG’s strategy this year is reminiscent of HTC’s One line of smartphones. The HTC One M8 was a superb and surprising device, released after years of underwhelming smartphones from the company.

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But when it came to this year’s M9, HTC decided to release a smartphone that ended up being nearly identical to last year’s model. LG’s G4 is in a similar situation.

Plastic build doesn’t cut it anymore

Patrick O'Rourke/National PostThe LG G4's screen is superb.

The only flagship mainstream smartphone manufacturer that has taken a chance this year is Samsung with its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. The major revamp puts the smartphone’s look so closely in-line with the iPhone’s that many speculate Apple might take legal action at some point in the future. Still, for all the S6’s shortcomings, Samsung is the only manufacturer that updated its design in a meaningful way this year.

While the G4 has taken the opposite approach and doesn’t take a single chance, it is still a decent looking smartphone, although one that lags behind the competition in terms of sleekness. The device largely looks and feels the same as the G3, only with a patterned triangle backing and slightly more curved edges. A leather backing is also available but is sold separately in Canada. And, love it or hate it, the G4’s defining rear on switch and volume rocker also makes a return with LG’s latest smartphone.

Placing these buttons on the back of the smartphone give it a unique look, which is welcome in an industry full of devices featuring a similar look and feel. Yet after the initial “cool” factor wears off, accessing the G4’s buttons becomes a frustrating chore. There’s no easy way to hold the phone in one hand and manipulate its buttons, causing me to place it in my hand on a strange angle. On more than one occasion I almost dropped the device while trying to reach its buttons. LG has tried to solve this issue by making the buttons more pronounced, but this change ultimately doesn’t solve the problem.

It’s also still difficult to get past the fact that the G4 still feels cheap when compared to the metal uni-body of the HTC M9 and even the Samsung S6’s Gorilla Glass exterior, especially considering LG is selling the G4 as a $699 off-contract high-end smartphone.

Top-notch battery life, removable back and MicroSD slot

Patrick O'Rourke/Financial PostThe biggest aesthetic change to the G4 is its patterned backing.

Battery life with the G4 is superb thanks to its 3000 mAh battery, making it one of the few smartphones to feature a battery of this capacity. I found myself only charging the G4 overnight unless I spent hours playing games on it during the day.

The G4’s backing is removable, unlike most other flaghship smartphones, allowing people to make use of an additional battery if they want to. However, most people concerned about smartphone battery life would likely rather use a USB battery pack. The G4 also includes a MicroSD card slot just like the HTC M9. This is a feature many other flagship smartphones (the Samsung Galaxy S6 for example) have dropped. It’s good to see LG still sees value in providing their customers with the option to add additional storage to their devices, although this is also a feature few people will probably take advantage of.

Minor display and hardware upgrades

Patrick O'Rourke/Financial PostThe strange placement of the on/off switch and volume rockers will be an issue for many people.

Those hoping for a pixel upgrade will be disappointed: The LG G4’s 5.5-inch 1440 x 2560 pixel screen resolution is identical to what was featured in the G3. so On the plus side, the G4’s new IPS display makes colours and images look slightly more vibrant.

For everybody else the screen upgrade will be almost unnoticeable. With that said though, when the G4’s screen is compared to other high-end smartphones like the Galaxy S6 (which features a OLED display), the LG G4 holds its own. It’s also important to point out the G4’s screen has a slight curve to it, which makes the phone slightly easier to hold in your hand, especially given its larger 5.5-inch size. But the curved screen is largely a superfluous change to the smartphone most people won’t notice unless they’re looking for it. The curvature of the screen also means the G4 sits somewhat strangely on flat surfaces.

When it comes to internals the G4 features top of the line hardware: A six core Snapdragon 808 processor and 3 GBs of RAM, which means you’ll be able to play high-end games, run multiple apps at the same time, and do almost anything any other modern high-end smartphone is capable of — all extremely smoothly with no lag time. Snapdragon 810 processors reportedly suffer from overheating issues. This problem is especially apparent in the HTC M9 since the smartphone tends to get very warm with prolonged use. So in a way it makes sense that LG instead decided to use the Snapdragon 808 in the G4, and most users will not notice a speed difference between the two processors’ speeds.

Clean user-interface and impressive camera

Patrick O'Rourke

LG’s Android skin, unlike HTC  and Samsung, sticks with Google’s broad concept for Android 5.1 Lollipop – bright colours and simplicity – and is also one of the first, if not the first smartphone to use Android 5.1 outside of Google’s Nexus line. This is a welcome change from the sometimes strange and cluttered interfaces of the HTC M9 and Galaxy S6 (although I’ve always liked how HTC’s skin spaces out icons better).

Built in features such as LG Smart Bulletin, an app that takes an entire page of the home screen to display apps like a music player, calendar and LG’s dedicated fitness tracker, also make a return. However, none of LG’s software tweaks are particularly impressive and I turned most of them off after using the phone for only a few hours. Google’s stock operating system experience is still much better than any skin smartphone manufacturers paste on top of Android.

And while the LG 4’s camera quality narrowly misses that of an iPhone, thanks to its improved, brighter F/1.8 aperature, larger image sensor and manual camera controls (a stock feature the LG G3 sorely missed out on) it just isn’t quite there yet. But as far as Android’s camera standards go, the LG G4’s 16 mega-pixel camera can go head-to-head with the Galaxy S6’s, the Android world’s current top performing camera.

A slightly improved version of the LG G3

If you didn’t own an LG G3 the LG G4 is far from a horrible smartphone. With this in mind though, both the Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 are better looking and more high-end feeling devices. The G5 includes powerful hardware, but unfortunately its build-quality isn’t up to par with the company’s competitors, making it difficult to recommend.

Other Android smartphone manufacturers have stepped their game up in terms of design and it’s time for LG to do the same.

Rogers Communications Inc, Shaw Communications Inc open streaming service Shomi to all Canadians

National Post Tech Desk - Wed, 05/27/2015 - 07:07

Two of Canada’s biggest cable companies are opening up their online TV streaming service to all Canadians, stepping up competition with Netflix Inc.

Launched last November, Shomi, an online TV and movie subscription service owned by Toronto-based Rogers Communications Inc. and Calgary-based Shaw Communications Inc. was previously available only to the companies’ Internet or cable subscribers.

Rogers, Shaw and BCE Inc. are competing with Los Gatos, California-based Netflix for customers who are increasingly ending their cable subscriptions and switching to online TV. BCE’s Crave TV is still available only to Canadians with a cable subscription.

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Netflix has been the dominant subscription video service in Canada since it launched here five years ago.

Mark Langton, a spokesman for BCE, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Non-Rogers and Shaw customers will be available to access Shomi in the summer, according to a statement. Shomi costs $8.99 a month, the same as Netflix.

The service can be streamed on tablet, mobile, online, and to televisions via Xbox 360, Apple TV and Chromecast. Rogers and Shaw TV subscribers can access content through their set-top boxes.

Shomi’s Canadian exclusives include the buzzy series “Transparent,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” and “Catastrophe” as well as past seasons of “Modern Family,” “The Americans” and “Sons of Anarchy.”

Bloomberg.com, with files from The Canadian Press

Here’s what a 10-year-old thinks of Splatoon, her first online competitive shooter

National Post Tech Desk - Wed, 05/27/2015 - 07:00

From the perspective of my family, Nintendo couldn’t have timed the launch of Splatoon any better.

My daughter, who’s never played a competitive online shooter before, celebrated her 10th birthday this month. The kid-friendly, E10+-rated Splatoon – in which tween-looking avatars use cartoonish weapons to splatter paint over each other and the environment – landed on shelves only about a week later.

As I’ve written previously, I’m a bit shocked at how many of her classmates are already online shooter veterans. And not lighter games, like Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, but gritty, hardcore fare with gore, language, and sex.

I’m all for parents knowing what their kids can handle, and I suspect there are lots of 10-year-olds who can be exposed to something like Call of Duty and not be much worse for wear. But I always wonder: When there are so many fantastic games without mature themes, why buy your fourth grader one that’s filled with blood, boobs, and bad words?

Splatoon was to be my kid’s first experience with a competitive online shooter – and a happily innocuous one pretty much devoid of objectionable content. I thought it an excellent opportunity to get a sense of how such a game might affect her impressionable young mind, see if she found it as intense, immersive, and habit-forming as other games in the genre have proven for so many young players.

After a couple of weeks of play (we were provided an early press copy by Nintendo) I sat her down and got her opinion on what she thinks shooters are all about, what she makes of playing online with and against other people, and whether Splatoon makes her feel different than other games.

Nintendo

Dad: I haven’t really let you play any shooters until now, and especially none with online play. Do you feel like you’ve been missing out on anything?

Daughter: No, I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. Online shooters always sounded like they were really competitive, and I was afraid I wouldn’t be very good. I’ve never felt like I needed to play them before.

You’ve mentioned before that some of your friends at school play shooters geared for grown-ups.

Yeah. There are these two kids who play together online after school every day. I think they think they’re too old for games without blood and guts and guns.

And how old are they?

Same age as me. You know that dad.

Right. Just wanted to clarify. And now that you’ve tried Splatoon – your first online competitive shooter – what did you think of it?

I liked it a lot. It’s a lot of fun to play with other people. And I like how I can be sneaky and turn invisible by becoming a squid and swimming through puddles of paint. That way I can sometimes just watch the action and then get involved when it’s safer. It’s not too stressful, which is something I was worried about.

How is it different from other games you’ve played?

Well, the controls let you move the camera and also your person. I like that. It felt a little bit like moving around in Minecraft, so I was able to get into it pretty easily. Though I didn’t like the Wii U motion controls at all. I turned those off. I just use the joysticks.

With online shooters like Splatoon there’s constant action and no pausing. Do you find it more intense than some of the other games you play?

What do you mean?

I mean does it get you keyed up? Excited. Really into the action.

Yes! Very much. When I lose I get very mad. And I just want to start again. I want to play repeatedly. It’s weird. I think I talk to the TV a lot when I play.

Yeah, I noticed. Once when you got hit by an opponent you shouted: “I hate this game! But I love it. Why?!”

I did. Because I lost. That was annoying. But it’s also addictive. I wanted to try again, right away. And then a few seconds later I would get to try again, because I respawned. And it happens that way over and over again. It’s hard to stop playing.

Did you find it more immersive than other games you’ve played?

What’s immersive mean?

Like you were there, inside the game. That you, not your avatar, were the one doing the shooting and splattering.

Well, no. And that makes me happy. Because I don’t want to feel like I’m covered in paint, or that I’m a squid swimming through paint. And this game isn’t as aggressive as I thought it might be. It’s not violent the way I hear other shooters are. Like, when you die, you don’t really die or anything. It has kind of a bright, happy atmosphere, actually. Because it’s Nintendo, right? And it’s very colourful, and nice to look at. Except when you’re fighting with red and green paint. That’s when it’s most warlike. Because red and green don’t go well together. At all. Except at Christmas. And even then, really.

There’s a single-player area, a multiplayer arena, and a local competitive mode for two players. Which did you like most?

I liked online play the most, because you get to have a team. Which is great. I’m not the best player out there, and having a team I can rely on is great. I really like that. But it’s kind of a personal thing. I’d rather not get into it.

Oh?

Yeah. Let’s move on, dad.

Okay. So you say you like having a team. What was your strategy when playing with others?

I like becoming a squid and sneaking past the other team by diving into the paint, then shooting them from behind and covering the turf they’ve already covered with my colour. Sometimes I just get up high and throw paint bombs. I also like to try to follow my teammates and support them. That way they can run into enemies first, and I can help. But they often get way ahead of me. If I had friends I could’ve played with rather than the strangers I was teamed up with maybe that wouldn’t happen.

Hmm. Interesting point. There’s no voice chat, and if there were I’d have disabled it because I don’t want you chatting with strangers online. But do you think being able to talk to other players using a headset would help you do better? Especially if they were your friends?

Yes. Because then I could make plans with my teammates, and that would help. But I can see why it’s not for everyone. When you go around the game plaza you can look at what people say in their Miiverse drawings. I saw one person say, “I’m happy there’s no voice chat because if there were people would just tell me how much I suck.” I can kind of understand that.

Yeah, that’s actually kind of why a lot of adults – like me – tend to switch off voice chat in online games. Especially if we’re not playing with our friends. Did you try communicating with other players by tapping on the d-pad to have your avatar yell out preset messages? It’s not voice chat, but it might help.

Actually, I didn’t even notice I could do that until yesterday. It might be helpful, but if it took me a couple of weeks to notice it even existed I don’t know how useful it’d be. Everyone would need to know about it. Most players are probably like me and don’t even know it’s there.

Do you think you’d like to try a shooter that’s more of an every-player-for-themselves kind of thing?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. As I explained before, dad, I like to have teammates I can rely on. That’s all I have to say about that.

Gotcha. Now that you’ve played an online shooter, do you think it justifies all the schoolyard hubbub?

Yeah, I think so. I really like Splatoon a lot. But I feel like if I told the other kids that I was playing Splatoon they might not think it was all that great. Because it’s Nintendo, and they think Nintendo is for kids. And it doesn’t have blood and guts. And even if it was fun, they wouldn’t admit it. Because they want to seem more grown up. But I don’t care, because Nintendo games are adorable. And fun. Especially this one.

So it sounds like Splatoon was a big hit with you.

Yeah. I know we’re not really reviewing it, but if you were looking for a score I’d give it an eight or nine out of ten. It’s great.

And if I sat you down in front of the TV right now and laid it among all the games you normally like to play – Skylanders, Disney Infinity, Lego games, Minecraft, Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart – would you go straight for Splatoon?

Maybe. But honestly, it really depends on what I’m in the mood for. I like all sorts of games. I’m just really happy that now there’s also an online shooter that I want to play – and that you’re cool with me playing it.

After IPO excitement, Shopify Inc craves return to business as usual

National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 05/26/2015 - 11:15

It’s been a hectic month for newly public Shopify Inc., so much so that its executive team is basking in the spotlight that a successful cross-border listed initial public offering brings, but also craving for a return to normalcy and to what the group does best: making software that helps other people build a business.

“It’s been a really exciting time for us, but we’re ready to get back to business and go back to running the company,” Harley Finkelstein, chief platform officer, said in an interview after Shopify ceremoniously opened the stock market Tuesday in Toronto, just three business days after doing the same in New York. “We’re not focused on the stock price,” he assured. “We’re focused on building a great company.”

Ottawa, Ont.-headquartered Shopify is the market’s latest technology darling, returning a handsome paper profit to the investors who jumped in before or at last week’s US$17 per share debut price in New York. Shares rose 4.7 per cent on Tuesday to US$29.64 at 12:54 p.m., while its more thinly traded shares in Toronto slumped 1.5 per cent to $36.69.

While the company’s IPO has caused a big stir among traders and media on both sides of the border, its platform hasn’t yet seen that same burst of interest from prospective clients, says Finkelstein. Still, he says Shopify has added a number of larger brands to its roster during the past few weeks including Sears, the UPS Store and the Kardashians. But the goal is “to become a trusted public company,” he said, which he hopes will help boost the confidence of entrepreneurs who have been slower to embrace the web.

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During the quarter ending March 31, the cloud-based platform processed US$1.3 billion in transactions, a 108 per cent increase compared to the same period last year, and powered 162,261 businesses in more than 150 countries. While Canadian retailers have been sluggish in the pivot from a physical storefront to a virtual one, Finkelstein says online retail as a percentage of all retail is growing faster here than the U.S.

Shopify’s growth, he adds, has been all about persuading people that setting up an online business doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.

Seeing the obvious potential beyond the computer screen, Shopify announced a few months ago that it would also introduce a point-of-sale terminal in an attempt to broaden its focus from just e-commerce to commerce, too. It’s now available across channels such as stores, pop-up shops, mobile and social media.

“For us, the future of retail isn’t about being online or offline,” Finkelstein added. “It’s about being able to sell where you have customers – and we’re going to allow our merchants to sell anywhere.”

Game of Thrones – Episode 4 game review: A legitimate GoT ending is finally in sight

National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 05/26/2015 - 10:00

George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire is two books and probably many years away from a proper conclusion.

And while Game of Thrones, HBO’s TV show based on the novels, is slated to finish up before publication of Martin’s final volume, it, too, is likely at least two or three years away from delivering its ending.

Which made it all the more exciting when, while playing the fourth of a scheduled six episodes in Telltale Games’ Game of Thrones adventure series – which follows the travails of House Forrester and takes place concomitantly with the events of the middle books – it began to dawn on me that an honest to goodness Game of Thrones ending is really and truly drawing near.

It may not be the family Stark finale millions of fans have been itching years to see, but at this point we should probably take what we can get.

Telltale Games

The fourth episode, titled Sons of Winter, kindles hope – a dangerous thing since, as fans well know, it always seems to be brightest before nightfall in Martin’s gritty fantasy world.

Following the format established in previous episodes, in which the story skips between multiple protagonists and plays out in brief segments, episode four finds several members of the Forrester clan finally making progress toward saving and restoring their house. (As usual, here’s the requisite SPOILER alert for anyone who hasn’t played preceding episodes.)

Rodrik Forrester, the current and still crippled head of his house, finds an unexpected ally that could help him save his captured brother Ryon and get out from under the thumb of rival House Whitehill. He finally possesses some semblance of power. Or at least thinks he does.

Brother Asher is still in Essos, but his dealings with Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons – just as calculating here as in the books and TV show – just prior to the liberation of Meereen place him on the cusp of earning a small army he can take back to Westeros to fight for his family.

Telltale Games

Sister Mira, meanwhile, has one of her strongest episodes yet, spending much of it mingling at Tommen Baratheon’s pre-coronation party in King’s Landing. She – meaning you, of course – plays the political game in satisfying fashion, using information as a tool to gain leverage and show strength. Be warned, though, that she faces some hard choices that could make formal enemies out of one or two withering allies.

Things are even looking up for one-time Forrester squire Gared Tuttle, whom we last saw being taken into custody on The Wall for killing his father’s murderer. Depending on your decisions, friendships earned in previous episodes could prove the key to his freedom.

The series’ trademark darkness still rears its head – most notably during a horrifying back story for Asher’s warrior pal Beskha, who’s quickly becoming one of the most memorable side characters in the series – but things are, by and large, looking up for the Forresters and their friends.

Telltale Games

That said, this episode is decidedly mid-season in tone. It’s all about scheming and positioning and without any truly shocking moments. I thought I’d stumbled across one in which several major characters die, but then the screen faded to black and I realized I’d made a rare game-ending decision and would need to try again.

There’s still some engaging play, including a lengthy and well choreographed stealth action sequence starring Asher that makes good use of Telltale’s traditional point-and-click interface. If you can manage to pull off everything without any mistakes it plays out in deliciously cinematic fashion.

But I couldn’t help being a bit disappointed that more hadn’t happened when the words “Next time on…” popped up and I realized that most of the developments that began this episode were going to be left hanging until sometime this summer.

Still, I have the sense that a legitimate Game of Thrones ending – a true ending, in which we are provided some sense of the outcome and fate of a family in which we’re deeply invested – is not only in the offing, but now only months away.

And in a franchise famous for cliffhangers and lack of resolutions, the thought of a genuine conclusion of some sort is reason to get at least a little excited.

Canadian startup Shoes.com eyes fall IPO after raising $45 million in funding round

National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 05/26/2015 - 08:33

TORONTO — Canadian e-commerce start-up Shoes.com Technologies plans to go public this fall following a private funding round that tapped high-net-worth individuals and private institutional capital, Chairman Roger Hardy said on Monday.

The company raised $45 million earlier this month, valuing it at $320 million. The offering was oversubscribed by two to three times, Hardy said, adding that it was the largest unbrokered private placement for a Canadian e-commerce company.

“This gets us cashed up right through to the IPO. It keeps us well capitalized to continue funding growth,” Hardy, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, said in an interview.

The news comes as another Canadian e-commerce company, Shopify, went public in a soaring U.S. and Canadian market debut last week.

A slew of Canadian technology companies have been tapped as potential IPO candidates, including Hootsuite, BuildDirect, Vision Critical, Wattpad and Shop.ca.

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“It’s validation that there are great companies here,” Hardy said of the Shopify IPO. “What it truly says is that innovative Canadian companies that succeed can get global attention.”

The e-commerce industry, dominated by giants such as Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc, is highly sought by venture capitalists and investors as more consumers do their shopping online.

Shoes.com expects to generate more than $300 million in revenue in 2015. In the first quarter, sales grew 88 per cent from same period last year, Hardy said. The company’s revenue was over $200 million in 2014.

Shoes.com recently named Greg Kerfoot, owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC soccer team, and Jeffrey Mason, a former chief financial officer at Hunter Dickinson, to its board.

The company could list on a stock exchange in Toronto or New York, or both, Hardy said.

Hardy made a name for himself last year when he sold Coastal Contacts Inc, a digital retailer of eyeglasses and contact lenses, to Essilor International for about $430 million. Coastal was listed on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

© Thomson Reuters 2015

Bell rolls out ‘second screen’ viewing with Fibe TV expansion app

National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 05/26/2015 - 05:13

Close to five years after BCE Inc. first launched its Fibe TV offering in Toronto, the media giant unveiled a free mobile application for Apple’s iOS and Android on Tuesday that better integrates and encourages the use of the so-called “second screen” in the television viewing experience.

The new release, which combines the functionality of Bell’s content viewing app and its remote control app that were both already in use, now offers Fibe TV subscribers in Ontario and Quebec access to more than 300 live channels on their mobile screens at home and more than 170 live channels for on-the-go viewing, a feat the Montreal-based telco says it was first in the world to achieve.

Clearly designed with the end user in mind, the app is built with features that let people choose the way they want to watch, including starting a show on one screen and continuing it on another with the tap of a button.

Bell is continuing to see big gains in both subscriber count and revenue for its young Fibe solution, which is helping to lift sales of its companion broadband Internet offering. As more Canadians tune out to cable and satellite, many are opting for newer Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) products such as Fibe instead of cutting the cord completely. These days, many viewers are either using a computing device while they watch their television screen or they’re watching a show on the device itself.

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Shawn Omstead, the vice-president of residential products who manages the Fibe file at Bell, says the two screens have never really been formally married – until now.

“To date, this screen has been a compromise,” said Omstead, pointing to an Apple iPad during an interview at the company’s Bell Media offices in Toronto. “It hasn’t really lived up to where we wanted it to be. Now you’re able to get an experience that’s worthy of the Fibe brand.”

If the remote or tablet is too far away, viewers can even navigate the programming menu, change channels, and start, pause and record a show on their Apple Watch. This free upgrade follows other innovations that Bell has brought to television consumers such as the Restart function, which lets customers rewind and watch TV shows already in progress from the beginning on more than 170 channels.

Bell said on April 17 that it surpassed one million subscribers of Fibe TV in Ontario and Québec and its Bell Aliant FibreOP TV in Atlantic Canada, amassing a total footprint of 6.1 million households.

cpellegrini@nationalpost.com

Charter Communications Inc agrees to buy Time Warner Cable for about US$55 billion

National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 05/26/2015 - 04:16

Charter Communications Inc. agreed to buy Time Warner Cable Inc. for about US$55 billion in cash and stock, swooping up the cable provider after getting last-minute competition from French billionaire Patrick Drahi.

Charter will pay US$195.71 a share —14 per cent above Time Warner Cable’s May 22 close — with US$100 in cash and the remainder in its own stock, according to a statement Tuesday. Bright House Networks, a smaller cable company that Charter has previously agreed to buy, will also be merged into the combined entity.

Charter, the fourth-biggest U.S. cable company, is clinching a deal with on No. 2 Time Warner Cable after its early 2014 bid was rejected and Comcast Corp. jumped in with a competing offer. Charter got another shot when regulatory scrutiny caused the Comcast deal to fall apart in April and then faced competition last week from Drahi’s Altice SA, which also held merger talks with Time Warner Cable.

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“The idea that Time Warner Cable and Charter are merging isn’t a surprise, but the price raises some eyebrows,” Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson in New York, said May 24 after Bloomberg News reported a deal was near. “Altice undoubtedly contributed to Charter having to pay such a steep price to close the deal.”

The Time Warner Cable deal enables Charter, whose largest shareholder is billionaire John Malone, to almost quadruple its number of cable subscribers, gaining 12 million customers in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Dallas.

Cable Deals

Dealmaking has been heating up in an industry that faces waning demand for traditional pay-TV packages and competition from Netflix, Amazon and other online services. Although many analysts predicted a tie-up between Charter and Time Warner Cable, Drahi made surprise foray into the U.S. on May 20 with the announcement of plans to buy a smaller rival, Suddenlink Communications. While in the country, he also met with Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Officer Rob Marcus, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Cable providers have been expanding their Internet offerings to help offset the loss of cable subscribers. By opposing the Comcast merger, regulators have showed they are taking a hard look at deals that give companies too much power over broadband Internet, which is increasingly becoming the way that people watch TV.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler called Time Warner Cable’s Marcus and Charter CEO Tom Rutledge recently to dispel notions that industry mergers won’t be approved by regulators, a person with knowledge of the calls has said. Wheeler told the CEOs that any transaction would be judged on merit, and there was no flat ban on cable combinations, the person said.

Mergers may give cable companies more leverage when negotiating contracts with television networks, which in turn could keep cable TV prices down for consumers.
Bloomberg.com

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