> FWIW, while the instinctive response here will be that this is a monopolistic and anti-consumer play, the reality is that these companies share almost zero ro

> FWIW, while the instinctive response here will be that this is a monopolistic and anti-consumer play, the reality is that these companies share almost zero routes. And cable companies also don't have overlapping territory, so from the consumer point of view it did not reduce competition. But from the 'other side' when there are fewer ISPs then tech companies can be squeezed because there are fewer paths to eye-balls overall and each path has more influence because instead of two ISPs have 10% of Netflix customers, now one has 20%: * https://qz.com/256586/the-inside-story-of-how-netflix-came-to-pay-comcast-for-internet-traffic https://qz.com/256586/the-inside-story-of-how-netflix-came-t... Similarly with Amazon and books: while cheap consumer prices may look great, from the book publishers' perspective there's a choke point to readers, and so now the publishers have to consolidate to get market power over Amazon. And if this goes through, do you think the other Class Is will sit around? * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._Class_I_railroads https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._Class_I_railroads CSX is mostly east of the Mississippi, while BNSF is west: what about that kind of merger? Or CN or CP doing the same thing?