Posted on 06/12/2018 1:49:31 PM PDT by Red Badger
AT&T announced that it was buying Time Warner for $85.4 billion in October 2016. The Justice Department sued last year to block the merger, citing concerns that AT&T, owner of satellite television provider DirecTV, could charge rival distributors more for Time Warner content, resulting in higher prices for consumers. The outcome of the trial could have implications for future deals in the telecom and media industries, as well as vertical mergers, where companies combine with their suppliers.
A federal judge said Tuesday that AT&T's $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner is legal, clearing the path for a deal that gives the pay-TV provider ownership of cable channels such as HBO and CNN as well as film studio Warner Bros.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon did not impose conditions on the merger's approval.
Shares of Time Warner jumped nearly 5 percent in extended trading. Shares of AT&T dropped more than 2 percent.
The Justice Department sued last year to block the merger, citing concerns that AT&T, owner of satellite television provider DirecTV, could charge rival distributors more for Time Warner content, resulting in higher prices for consumers. But AT&T has countered that the logic doesn't hold up since the point of owning content is to get widespread distribution, which brings in affiliate fees and advertising revenue.
The decision comes after a six-week trial.
AT&T, also the No. 2 wireless carrier in the U.S., said it was buying Time Warner in October 2016 to diversify its revenues and also become a media powerhouse that could attract consumers by bundling entertainment with mobile service. CEO Randall Stephenson has said the deal would help AT&T compete against tech giants like Amazon and Netflix, which are investing more in content.
The outcome of the trial will likely have implications for future deals in the telecom and media industries, as well as vertical mergers, where a company buys its supplier. Comcast has been eyeing a similar merger to combine production and distribution in a competing bid for Foxand was preparing to announce an offer as soon as Wednesday if Leon ruled in favor of AT&T in the trial, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
“We’re putting the band back together!”
Great news!
Start cleaning out your desk, Zuck.
Sessions is plotting in every nook and cranny don’t you know. It is becoming inane. I had a bad hair day...it was Sessions fault
And you all thought Ma Bell was dead! Bwahahahahahahahahahhahahahah!...........................
I was there when she went into the coma
My guess is there is 0 indictments for DOJ! FBI! clinton and obama scandals. Sessions is a moron, a lazy POS and the worst appointment trump could ever make. The sessions Q CTH people only believe that Sessions is busy behind the scenes because they want to believe that someone is doing something to bring dirtbags to justice. My opinion is that little if anything is really being done. Dont you think if something really were being done trump and congress would know about it? (Pls forget about the notion that everyone is in on the game to pretend nothing is going on. The likely fact is that nothing is going on).
“you have no clue about what the DOJ is actually doing”
And neither do you.
One wonders what, if anything will happen with the Obammys and Susan Rice involvement with NETFLIX.
Robert Bork’ s views on monopoly, adopted by the DOJ in the 1970s prevail.
Thanks in large part to groundbreaking books in the 1970s by the Supreme Court nominee and Yale Law School antitrust scholar Robert Bork (“The Antitrust Paradox”) and Richard Posner (now an influential judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals) at the University of Chicago Law School (“Antitrust Law”), vertical mergers came to be viewed as usually promoting competition and, by extension, consumer welfare.
The view was embraced by the Supreme Court and embedded in the Justice Department’s vertical merger guidelines during the Reagan administration.
This is WHY the NeverTrump GOP is dying.
They never fail to give the Chamber of Commerce and the business community EXACTLY what they want.
Even if it’s not good for the vast majority of Americans.
After three decades of this people are fed-up. Trump is actually going to save the GOP by saying NO to them from time to time.
clue: The President recognizes danger and is not stupid as many here imply
She’s BAAAAAACK!.........................
Thats funny
Efficiency. Now if you want to add a channel to the cable line up you’ll just dial zero for the operator.
As long as my pension checks keep coming from the company that was born of one of the Baby Bells, I think I’ll just sit back, have a coke and enjoy the show.
I’m not laughing
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.