BUSINESS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL: “The Justice Department sued to block AT&T Inc. from taking over Time Warner Inc. on Monday [11-20-17], a sweeping challenge to a deal it says would give one company too much control in a rapidly evolving media landscape.
AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said the suit ‘defies logic’ and that the company would fight the case, the first major antitrust action under the Trump administration.
Few cases in recent memory have challenged ‘vertical’ combinations that link companies in different parts of an industry. The government’s lawsuit claims this megadeal would hurt consumers and competition because AT&T could wield its power to charge cable-TV rivals higher prices for HBO, Turner sports and other popular Time Warner programming.
It also alleges that AT&T, which two years ago bought DirecTV, could use the deal to squeeze out new streaming services like Sling TV that could threaten its traditional pay-TV profits…
AT&T’s deal for Time Warner was valued at $85 billion when it was announced in October 2016, just weeks before the presidential election, as one of the largest media deals ever.”
-Brent Kendall and Drew Fitzgerald, “Justice Department Files Lawsuit Challenging AT&T-Time Warner Deal,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 20, 2017 07:41pm