Today Comcast announced it would abandon its plan to try to buy Time Warner Cable.
One map helps explain why the company was chasing the deal.
It shows Google's current and projected expansion plans for Google Fiber, the company's ultra-fast fiber-optic Internet and TV service.
In a February 2014 memo, Comcast explicitly named Google Fiber as a leading reason for why it was seeking merger approval.
"…With Google having launched its 1 GB Google Fiber offering in a number of markets across the country, and consumers having more choice of pay TV providers than ever before, Comcast believes that there can be no justification for denying the company the additional scale that will help it compete more effectively," executive vice president David Cohen wrote.
If the merger had gone through, Comcast and Time Warner would have controlled 57 percent of the broadband market under new FCC rules, which would have made it incredibly difficult to dislodge their ability to set speed standards.
As the Kansas City Star reported last year, after Google moved into town, Comcast and Time Warner were both forced to boost their Internet speeds to compete (although they still weren't as fast as Google's).
Google already announced this year that it will be coming to at least five more cities, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, and Salt Lake City. (TechRepublic.com has a good rundown of what Google looks for in its Fiber cities. As you can see, size is usually a detriment).
So Comcast was running out of time to make a move. And now it has its answer.