Slashdot Mirror
US Sues To Block AT&T Purchase of Time Warner (reuters.com)
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing AT&T to block its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner. "The legal challenge was expected after AT&T rejected a demand by the Justice Department earlier this month to divest its DirecTV unit or Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting -- which contains news network CNN -- in order to win antitrust approval," reports Reuters. From the report: AT&T's chief executive said then that he would defend the deal in court to win approval, and the company criticized the Justice Department's case on Monday. The lawsuit is "a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent," said AT&T lawyer David McAtee, arguing that so-called vertical mergers, between companies that are not direct competitors, are routinely approved. "We see no legitimate reason for our merger to be treated differently," he said, adding that AT&T is confident a judge will reject the Justice Department's case.
You figure he is a CNN fan?
it's news networks that expose his bullshit administration for the sellout sham they are. This has nothing to do with AT&T.
Somebody's confused. FCC & Justice are separate entities....
... In the same wig-lead administration. Last month the FCC made a threat of this exactly and now DOJ is backing it up. Somebody's confused.
The FCC hasn't got the memo apparently, but this merger WILL happen.
Doubtful. Read what Trump has written in the past and you'll see he's against mass-centralization of media. The fact that the DOJ is coming out against this should also tell you the way it's blowing, on top of that individual US states are starting antitrust investigations against the big name tech companies(google/facebook/twitter/etc). Their little song and dance on the hill didn't make republicans any happier with what they said, then the democrats who were also sitting on that hearing. Both were equally pissed off at the way they refused to clearly answer any questions on the basis of being neutral.
Om, nomnomnom...
Trump's "opinion" on such things is about as mercurial and illiterate as his opinion on abortion, deficits, war, or anything else. If he sees profit in reversing himself entirely 5 times in a row, guess what he'll do.
Actually, the GP is bang on the money.
I mean, seriously, look at his opinion on abortion, where he has gone from not liking it but believing it should be legal (like most sensible humans), to offering an extreme parody of the Republican platform (women should be punished!) in order to get elected.
And on war: I mean, seriously. He's against foreign conflicts -- America First, let's not get involved in other people's conflicts -- until bombing an airfield makes him look presidential. And in the few months since he got elected, the US has grown its foreign military presence by a third.
Read something. And save everyone else some time.
Vertical mergers have been approved for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
There may be reasons that the big getting bigger is not appealing to some, but this looks like payback for CNN reporting. And that is bad for the country.
AT&T and Time Warner *ARE* direct competitors....
If suing is the lawyer equivalent of asking the judge a question, as another /. user said, then ...
is this the judge asking a question to himself?
I don't understand why the judiciary branch has a need to sue? They are the ones deciding. So can't they just ... you know ... decide?
If this still isn't clear to you, after "Obama" has extended what "Bush" extended what "Clinton" extended, what ... ...then you know why it keeps being like that.
Trump just as much has to be the sock puppet to the (mostly military-)industrial fist or be destroyed or shot in the head or something.
I'll gladly bet money on that. Including the next president trumping even Trump.
Read what Trump has written in the past ...
Written? By Trump? When?
He didn't even write Art of the Deal. Hell, nobody is sure he ever read it.
I am most often against mergers but this is in retaliation by the Trump Administration for perceived slights. Usually, I am dead against the orange cheeto dude with small hands, but on this one, I'll agree.
Read what Trump has written in the past and you'll see he's against mass-centralization of media.
Since when have Trump's past statements accurately predicted his future actions?
“I know Hillary and I think she’d make a great president" -- Donald Trump, 2008
you mean Trump has no clue or OP has? If it's Trump I agree. Just parse his tweets on any topic over a period of 6 months.
+1.
His current vocabulary make writing this book pretty much the job of the ghost writer. I would wager that he'll fail in a spelling test from words out of the book.
Yes. The Party approves. We strive to have ONE powerful news organization in our glorious nation.
is still Trump, but I'll take what I can get, especially after he's done packing the courts with lunatics.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Well Trump was right about that. I mean, have you seen the grifter who is President now?
You think Trump's businesses haven't been affected (or publicly advertised in state functions, say) by his 0-accomplishment presidency? Wait a while. Mueller is still building Trump's personal Hell.
no this is a horizontal merger. They provide the same services over the same areas. Eliminating competition. It is also stupid as the cable TV subscriber base is sinking fast.
Trump is right for the wrong reason. He just hates CNN, so a very bad reason to oppose the deal. The deal should be opposed because mega companies are not good. I could totally see him being ok with ATT merging with VZ though. Especially if he holds stock in both. What is good for trump is good for america and that is the lens he sees everything thru.
Haha THEDONALD is fucking in the azzwhole a major biznazi. WooHoo ... dead Ameri-Mex patrol horrific case RIP , but it bitchslaps bleedingheart progressives. Now THEDONALD just needs to yank welfare from babymamaz ... let Maxine Waters parasites starve-2-death and his blojobbing immigrant dreemerz will be forgiven.
0 accomplishment? So I just have to provide one thing he accomplished to prove you wrong? Ok.
1. US not joining TPP. He said it, he did it.
Captcha: tiresome. As in, the idiocy from the deep state's stooges is tiresome.
You figure he is a CNN fan?
This is pretty simple.
President Trump and his administration approve things that make him and his allies money, and try to punish and take money from people who stand against him.
CNN is annoying, so he tries to punish the owners of CNN by making it cost them a crapload of time and money to own CNN.
Contrariwise, he approves the end of media ownership limits because it will help conservative buyers.
Meanwhile, he writes a tax bill that will take away the state income tax deductions (increasing taxes on Democrats) and severely cut taxes on business owners (including on his real estate holdings in particular), but does not hurt the charitable foundation deduction (leaving his own loopholes in play).
Free market in action?
Requiem for the American Dream
Guaranteed if the Justice Dept issued me a demand and I failed to comply I would be removed from society.
The DoJ hasn't blocked a vertical merger in over 40 years. Makan Delrahim, who runs the anti-trust division, had no problems with the merger until Trump took office. The law is on AT&T's side.
Then why is his FCC nominee is actively gutting regulations to let Sinclair take gain a near monopoly over local TV stations? The same Sinclair that recently hired one of Trump's senior advisers to to be their Chief Political Analyst.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
If you have any evidence or citation that Donald Trump has ever written anything other than his name or tweets, I invite you to bring it forward here.
Otherwise, we have zero reason to believe that Donald Trump is capable of putting a coherent thought onto paper.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Much like any politician I guess? Obama did this on Whistleblowers and Hillary did this on Gay marriage, to name a couple of specifics.
... want favourable attention from a pro-corporate White House.
Wait..Liberals are for big business now? You complain and want the opposite of what his administration does. Trump and is administration are playing you phewls. I love it! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. MAGA. Poor liberals
So then your position is that that Trump's opinion on such things is not as mercurial and illiterate as his opinion on abortion, deficitswar, or anything else?
You mean like his hotels whose room prices have nosedived?
"And as for profiting from politics, that's a Clinton thing."
Christ. You are so misguided it is hilarious.
Who says I didn't do anything yesterday? I shit the bed; that's something.
Otherwise, we have zero reason to believe that Donald Trump is capable of putting a coherent thought onto paper.
Try picking up a book(or his), it'll do you wonders.
Om, nomnomnom...
Donald Trump did not write "his" book. It was written by a ghostwriter named Tony Schwartz. Trump admits this. There still isn't any evidence that Trump can write anything but his name.and tweets.
https://www.thenation.com/arti...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Because there's something called Compromise, which happens when you have a President, rather than a dictator?
He was elected to do a job. That requires getting a Republican congress to actually do something. As you've seen from the past few presidents, that's not an easy thing to do, unless all you want is tax cuts.
The DOJ is suing AT&T for a merger(don't get me wrong, they should), yet they just sit back and watch while net neutrality(which also affects govt entities) is being destroyed without a 2nd thought.