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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?
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....
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.
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
is still Trump, but I'll take what I can get, especially after he's done packing the courts with lunatics.
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Well Trump was right about that. I mean, have you seen the grifter who is President now?
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.
The DOJ is a department of the executive branch of government, not the judicial branch.
I don't trust atoms -- they make up stuff.
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
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.
C'mon, you could at least try and put together a coherent troll. This is just pathetic.
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...
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.