Phone & Cable Companies

The New York Times:

Investors cannot seem to decide what to do with the stocks of phone and cable companies. Last year, they dumped the shares on the hunch that those industries would be hurt as they moved onto each other’s turf...

This year, every major phone and cable stock has risen. BellSouth, for example, is up 66 percent, and Comcast has risen 57 percent. Investors now appear to view the battle for phone, broadband and television customers as something other than a zero-sum equation; perhaps, the thinking goes, cable and phone companies can divide the pie and still prosper.