Mexico’s Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE) announced on Thursday it had determined to sanction AT&T and Warner Bros. Discovery with a fine for failing to disclose their concentration, related to the separation of Warnermedia’s business ventures in Mexico.
The competition regulator revealed the fine would total more than 51 million pesos ($2.5 million), a calculation based on both the severity of the violation and on the size of the overall transaction.
The sanction is related to an international merger operation, in which the acquisition by Discovery, Inc. of AT&T’s business known as Warnermedia was originally proposed. This merger would have included Warner’s Mexican business, including Warner Media Mexico and Warner HBO.
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Mexican telecommunications regulator, the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, had also imposed some conditions on their approval of the merger operation, relating to specific services and channels carried by the networks. In particular, the companies committed to minimizing the concentration’s impact on their popular children’s For Pay programming, including the Cartoon Network and Discovery Kids! channels.
The deal would have also covered the purchase by AT&T shareholders of 71 percent of the company’s stock, resulting in a new company rebranded as Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.
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