The Justice Department is suing to block the AT&T — Time Warner merger, say reports
The Justice Department is poised to block the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner, according to a Bloomberg report. The Department of Justice has announced a public call concerning a “major antitrust matter,” but Bloomberg sources say the Department will be announcing a lawsuit against the proposed merger. Subsequent reports from Reuters and Politico confirmed the news.
First proposed in October of 2016, the $85 billion merger proposal has drawn criticism as a dangerous consolidation of the media industry, with The Verge’s own Walt Mossberg calling it “an unhealthy concentration of power between a distributor and a maker of content.” FCC chairman Ajit Pai publicly declined to review the merger earlier this year, leaving the DOJ...