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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?
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).