Net Neutrality and Investment
Free Press has assured us that net neutrality couldn’t possibly have a negative impact on investment, so this is clearly just a coincidence.
Cable-company stocks fell Thursday on concern about the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to regulate Internet lines. [...]
“Markets abhor uncertainty. Today we got uncertainty in spades,” wrote Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett in a report Wednesday night. He added that “this development is an unequivocal negative … most significantly for the cable operators and Verizon.”
A big worry for investors is whether pricing regulations will limit the carriers’ ability to recoup the costs of building their networks. Even uncertainty over the regulations could affect companies’ decisions to spend, as investments in broadband lines take years to pay back.
Checking the stock prices right now, it looks like the 5-day change for various Cable companies is:
- Comcast (CMCSA): -7.13%
- Time Warner Cable’s (TWC) stocks: -12.05%
- Cablevision (CVC): -10.2%
- Mediacom (MCCC): -20.39%
- Charter Communications (CCMM): +7.38% (NOTE: This stock shows up differently, often way down, on different tickers. I’m unsure what is going on, but I include it here in order to be complete)
- Liberty Global (LBTYA): -12.45%
- Knology (KNOL): -6.32%
Clearly, this is all just a coincidence. I’m sure shareholders don’t mind a bit.
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