AT&T Wins Fight With US Over Purchase of Time Warner (reuters.com)

An appeals court has approved AT&T's purchase of Time Warner, despite the Trump administration's drawn-out attempts to block the $85.4 billion acquisition. The U.S. Justice Department said it would not fight the decision. Reuters reports: The three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled unanimously in favor of the deal earlier on Tuesday, saying that the government's case that the merger would result in higher consumer prices was "unpersuasive." The decision ended a 15-month effort by the Justice Department to block it. It was AT&T's second major court victory against the Justice Department, setting the stage for the No. 2 wireless carrier to integrate its WarnerMedia business as well as its new Xandr advertising unit.

The deal has been seen as a turning point for a media industry that has been upended by companies like Netflix and Alphabet's Google which put content online with no need for a cable subscription. The merger, which was announced in October 2016, closed on June 14 shortly after Judge Richard Leon ruled the deal was legal under antitrust law. AT&T agreed it would have no role in setting Turner's prices to distributors and the number of Turner employees would remain largely unchanged.

Comments

Let the people vote

[Snotnose]

90% of consumers won't understand what's at stake. But tell them:

1: More competition == lower prices
2: A boatload of people will lose their jobs if this happens. People like you
3: 2-5 of the 1 percenters will make millions off this, while your prices go up and service goes down

and hopefully even the most MAGA'centric drunken dipshit will get a clue.

This is bad for America, this is bad for consumers, it can be argued this is bad for freedums!