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AT&T and Time Warner Still Trying To Sidestep FCC Scrutiny of Merger (arstechnica.com)

Posted by msmash on from the moving-forward dept.

AT&T and Time Warner say they have a plan to avoid a Federal Communications Commission review of their pending merger. From a report on Ars Technica: An FCC review would be necessary if Time Warner transfers any FCC licenses to AT&T, but Time Warner might get rid of any such licenses before the deal is finished. "Time Warner has conducted a review of all licenses that it holds that are granted by the FCC," AT&T said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. "While subject to change, it is currently anticipated that Time Warner will not need to transfer any of its FCC licenses to AT&T in order to continue to conduct its business operations after the closing of the transaction." "Time Warner has been looking to transfer or sell its licenses to another broadcaster for some time, according to a person familiar with the matter. "Time Warner can contract with third parties instead of owning the licenses, the person said."

19 comments

  1. Simple... TRUMP IT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just claim that you need the merger to 'keep jobs in America' and he will be your champion

    1. Re:Simple... TRUMP IT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what is he going to do about Sears, Kmart and Macy's that are closing stores and getting rid of thousands of employees?

    2. Re:Simple... TRUMP IT! by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 3, Funny

      Trump has already made the statement that he will kill the merger if he can.

      He understands, all too well, that such a thing would put too much power into the hands of too few.

    3. Re:Simple... TRUMP IT! by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Let stores that aren't shit take their place?

    4. Re:Simple... TRUMP IT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL Trump made a statement.

      You know, Trump says a lot of things, and some of them are even true.

    5. Re:Simple... TRUMP IT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same as always, get the company to exaggerate some claims to keeping jobs and then trumpet it to the world as WINNING!!!

      You act as if reality has any effect on his claims

    6. Re:Simple... TRUMP IT! by buss_error · · Score: 1, Insightful
      You know, Trump says a lot of things, and some of them are even true.

      If President Elect Trump said water was wet, fire burns, and the sun rises in the East, I wouldn't take his word for it. It's nothing unusual, I don't take any politicians word for anything but Mr. Trump does seem to me to be more factually challenged than the normal run of fat cat, self serving, self aggrandizing politicians.

      --
      Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
    7. Re:Simple... TRUMP IT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So Trump is going to reward some companies, punish others and ignore other ones that cost Americans jobs? That sounds a lot like government interfering with the free market and picking winners and losers that republicans have been screaming about.

    8. Re:Simple... TRUMP IT! by guises · · Score: 1

      It's because he's an outsider. I know people like to say that politicians are scheming, lying, egomaniacs (SLEs) (they like to say this because politicians are SLEs), but being a politician doesn't mean that you're the biggest SLE around. Think about where he comes from: real estate and reality television.

    9. Re:Simple... TRUMP IT! by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      It's not that the stores are shit, it's that nobody really cares for department stores like they used to.

      And in the grand scheme of things, those kind of stores were basically a fad. Before the mid 60's, people mostly bought stuff from mail order catalogues, only opting for department stores after freight became a thing and it became cheaper to ship mass quantities of goods to more areas than just big cities, and people naturally prefer to see and try things before buying them. However now that shipping to individual households has gotten faster and cheaper, combined with the internet providing the ability to make it easier for the customer to judge the quality and appearance of something before ordering it (i.e. better pictures, online reviews,) we're basically going back to that mail order era, only improved.

      In fact Sears itself started as strictly a mail order company.

    10. Re:Simple... TRUMP IT! by Agripa · · Score: 1

      Trump has already made the statement that he will kill the merger if he can.

      He understands, all too well, that such a thing would put too much power into the hands of too few.

      Is that his public position or his private position?

      Err, never mind. I was thinking of Hillary.

  2. Trump has been ambiguous on big telecoms by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    These co's are just probing the swamp...I mean waters.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  3. I did not hear ATT and TWC merged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it AWC?

    1. Re:I did not hear ATT and TWC merged by turkeydance · · Score: 1

      TWAT-CT

  4. Found their actual plan! by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    1. Declare both ATT and Time Warner are exporting jobs to Mexico.
    2. Have Trump tweet about that at 3 am on orders from Russia.
    3. "Give in" by saying they will keep jobs in America by merging their companies
    5. PROFIT!

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  5. Let them die together in peace by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look, if we are allowing open marriages, and companies are people. I don't see why we can't allow any two companies to marry if they really love each other and want to spend the rest of their (very probably limited) lives together.

  6. Ambiguous? by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    he's made it painfully clear that he'll OK any merger that crosses his desk. As always his twitter feed tells whatever story he thinks people want to hear this week though.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  7. So their plan is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1. Find a holding company to sell the license too (even if they have to create it)
    2. merge
    3. buy it back.
    4. Profit

    1. Re:So their plan is... by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      you forgot 3.5 ???