Like many other customers of Time Warner, I received an email announcing of a pending merger. I found it ironic actually. Here's an excerpt of the letter:

Above all, this merger will benefit you, our customers. Our two companies have been behind many of the innovative services that you enjoy every day—digital cable TV, high-speed Internet, DVRs, Video On Demand and WiFi in the home and on-the-go—to name just a few. The combined company will innovate faster and deploy even better products and features, including a superior video guide, faster Broadband Internet speeds and even more WiFi access points so you can access the Internet wherever you go.

We expect the merger to close around the end of 2014. In the meantime, all of us at Time Warner Cable remain committed to providing you with great TV, ultra-fast Internet, rock solid phone service and innovative home security and monitoring. And we will continue to make significant investments to improve reliability and to enhance our customer service."

So the question is knowing of what happens when companies merge and attempt expand services, will they truly make significant investments to improve reliability/enhance customer service and continue to "air-quotes" innovate? It seems when an elephant consumes an elephant, it continues to remain slow, lumber-some, and slow to meet the challenges of the customer. Their focus is preservation of the whole. Of course you want to preserve the company to maximize profit, but when you have a large beast to satiate, the focus is keeping the beast alive. Many large companies fail to forget responsiveness to customers and maintaining their interests is the best long term goal. Macy's always focused on customer service and remained relevant with a limited number of slow years. Yet how many times have we've heard of poor customer from so many large companies? (Forgive the generalizations) The point is, a merger is not always a positive event for the customer.