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U.S. Said to Be Poised to Sue Over AT&T’s Deal for Time Warner U.S. Sues to Block AT&T-Time Warner Merger
(35 minutes later)
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department plans to file a lawsuit aimed at blocking AT&T’s $85.4 billion bid for Time Warner, a person familiar with the move said on Monday, setting up a showdown over the first blockbuster acquisition to come before the Trump administration. WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Monday sued to block AT&T’s $85.4 billion bid for Time Warner, setting up a showdown over the first blockbuster acquisition to come before the Trump administration.
By challenging the deal, the Justice Department would signal that its approach to antitrust issues is starkly different from the course of action followed during the Obama presidency. In 2011, for instance, the department approved a similar deal — Comcast’s acquisition of NBCUniversal — after imposing numerous conditions on the transaction. By challenging the deal, the Justice Department is taking a starkly different approach to antitrust issues than the Obama administration did. In 2011, for instance, the department approved a similar deal — Comcast’s acquisition of NBCUniversal — after imposing numerous conditions on the transaction.
Makan Delrahim, the department’s top antitrust regulator, said the Justice Department opposed the deal because it would create a communications and media behemoth unrivaled in its ability to reach most American homes with wireless and satellite television services and valuable programming such as CNN and HBO, the home to “Game of Thrones.”
“This merger would greatly harm American consumers,” Mr. Delrahim, the assistant attorney general for antitrust, said in a statement. “It would mean higher monthly television bills and fewer of the new, emerging innovative options that consumers are beginning to enjoy.”
AT&T said it would defend its merger in court.
“Today’s D.O.J. lawsuit is a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent,” AT&T’s general counsel, David McAtee, said in a statement. “We are confident that the court will reject the government’s claims and permit this merger under longstanding legal precedent.”