PALO ALTO — Comcast announced Thursday that it intends to buy Time Warner Cable for a cool $45 billion. The splashy deal would unite what are already the two largest cable players in the United States, and the combination would reach one in three homes—if regulators let it through. The Recorder spoke with Mark Ostrau, co-chairman of Fenwick & West’s antitrust and unfair competition group, for his take on the news.

Q. Did the announcement of this deal surprise you at all?