A US appeals court will hear oral arguments on December 6 in the Justice Department’s (DOJ) fight against AT&T’s US$85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner, the court announced on Wednesday, October 17.
The merger, which was announced in October 2016, closed on June 14 after a US district court ruled the deal was legal under antitrust law. The DOJ has asked a federal appeals court to reverse that approval.
The core of the DOJ’s concern is that AT&T, which owns DirecTV, would use its ownership of Time Warner’s content to make pay TV rivals pay more, thus raising their costs and forcing them to charge consumers more.
AT&T has stated it would manage Time Warner’s Turner cable television networks as part of a separate business unit until February 2019, or the conclusion of the government’s appeal.
Full Content: Reuters
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