Posted on 11/19/2017 8:41:56 AM PST by mac_truck
The Trump administration’s antitrust enforcers have fired a warning shot to AT&T and other companies hoping to pull off massive mergers.
Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, is reportedly expected to take AT&T to court over its proposed $85 billion deal with Time Warner.
Earlier this month, in an unusually public spat, it was reported that Department of Justice (DOJ) officials had demanded that AT&T sell off CNN’s parent company, Turner Broadcasting, from Time Warner if it wanted the deal approved. DOJ sources told The Hill and other outlets that AT&T had offered to follow through with divesting from CNN.
AT&T has denied both accounts, saying it did not and would not make such an offer.
Signs that the merger was facing trouble came as a shock to many observers who had predicted that the deal would easily pass regulatory scrutiny since it involved two companies that do not directly compete with one another, known as a vertical merger.
Lina Khan, a scholar with the Open Markets Institute, said that the scrutiny on vertical deals would represent a significant shift from previous antitrust policy at the Justice Department.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
FINALLY!
Perhaps the corporatist/globalist cabal will be defanged and the citizens will be the beneficiaries.
Star for Sessions?
Eighty-five billion dollar purchase.
Why is it again they need tax cuts at the expense of the Mom and Pop stores and the middle class?
“Lina Khan, a scholar with the Open Markets Institute, said that the scrutiny on vertical deals would represent a significant shift from previous antitrust policy at the Justice Department.”
It’s long overdue. If we had any sense, we’d put AT&T out of business permanently.
They are scum.
Ha...I'd settle for CNN getting sold off to the Koch Bros. or some other entity hostile to their political agenda.
That ain’t gonna happen.
A house of lies from The Hill. There’s nothing new here.
The merger will be approved if OTHER content providers than CNN are divested.
It could. The Kochs are looking to invest in media companies. That it could result in a bloodbath at CNN won’t matter a bit to AT&T as long as it helps them get the deal done.
The older Koch is not truly conservative and the youngers are lib. Soon they would get out of media.
When you have a lot of gold, you use it to get more and make sure you don’t have competition.
That is how big corporations are made.
Rent seeking is often more profitable and easier than competition.
So will CNN, the champion of Fake News be put on the chopping block or disposed of by Time Warner?
“Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, is reportedly expected to take AT&T to court over its proposed $85 billion deal with Time Warner.
Earlier this month, in an unusually public spat, it was reported that Department of Justice (DOJ) officials had demanded that AT&T sell off CNN’s parent company, Turner Broadcasting, from Time Warner if it wanted the deal approved. DOJ sources told The Hill and other outlets that AT&T had offered to follow through with divesting from CNN.
AT&T has denied both accounts, saying it did not and would not make such an offer.
Ha...I'd settle for CNN getting sold off to the Koch Bros. or some other entity hostile to their political agenda.
You are addressing a different question; one that I did not pose.
This alone would make my vote for Trump worth it. Media companies must be broken up.
The Golden Rule: He who has the gold, makes the rules.
Imho, “content” is the key. The internet is driven by content. So, this merger could easily be considered a horizontal merger. For example ATT has not only content, but the means to deliver that content to whatever device you choose. TW will provide additional content and the means to deliver it also.
5.56mm
Perhaps. But if AT&T has to dump CNN to make the deal happen, it will find a way to dump AT&T, if not to the Kochs, then to someone else. Sinclair has been very acquisitive lately.
I would imagine that most of the price is in AT&T stock.
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