Comcast and Time Warner Cable have agreed to extend the end date of their merger agreement by six months to Aug. 12, 2015.
The companies had initially told the SEC they thought the deal would be completed by the end of 2014 —actually by Feb. 12, 2015, a year from the deal's announcement— but as is standard, the agreement also anticipated that an extension might be necessary given that neither company controls the vetting process by the FCC and Justice Department in Washington, and a court challenge to the FCC's protective order had made it essentially a formality unless the parties had decided not to do the deal.
They informed the SEC of their decision to extend in an 8K filing on Jan. 28.
The FCC has an informal 180-day shot clock on the deal, which shows its vetting is only on day 122. But that clock dates from when the papers were filed—which did not happen until April 2014— and has been stopped twice due to document production issues.
