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Technology Stocks : Primestar/TCI Satellite (TSATA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDCFA who wrote (110)	10/14/1998 8:07:00 PM
From: zebraspot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 442

Primestar abandons plans to buy the last available satellite slot, according to the Justice Department: >>Dow Jones Newswires WASHINGTON -- The satellite-television partnership Primestar Inc. abandoned plans Wednesday to buy the last available satellite slot, according to the Justice Department. The Justice Department in May filed an antitrust suit against the purchase of the satellite assets, owned by MCI WorldCom Inc. (WCOM) and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWS). Justice said the purchase would have allowed the five largest cable companies in the U.S., which control Primestar, to keep out new competition. Direct-broadcast satellite, or DBS, offers the only direct competition to cable. Partners in Primestar include TCI Satellite Entertainment Inc. (TSATA), Time Warner/Newhouse, Cox Communications Inc. (COX), Comsat Corp. (CMSCA), MediaOne of U S West Media Group (UMG) and General Electric Co.s' (GE) GE American Communications Inc. "This is the right result and a big win for consumers," said Joel Klein, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's antitrust division. "DBS service is the first real competitor to local cable monopolies. As a result of this action, the last remaining DBS slot will not fall into the hands of the dominant cable companies." DBS uses orbiting satellites to transmit video programming directly to a small dish receiver at a subscriber's home. The trial was to have begun in February 1999.<<