Harris mingled with Tehran regime operative who promotes terrorism

[webfact]

U.S. sues to stop AT&T buying Time Warner, says would hike rates

By Diane Bartz and David Shepardson

 

FILE PHOTO: An AT&T logo and communication equipment is shown on a building in downtown Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice sued AT&T Inc <T.N> on Monday to block its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc <TWX.N>, saying the deal could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers while hampering the development of online video.

 

The lawsuit is the first major challenge to a merger by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized Time Warner's CNN news unit and announced his opposition to the deal before the election last year, saying it would concentrate too much power in AT&T's hands.

 

The Justice Department is arguing that AT&T would use Time Warner's films and movies to force rival pay-TV companies to pay "hundreds of millions of dollars more per year for Time Warner's networks" in the lawsuit filed late Monday in federal court in Washington.

 

The government cited documents where AT&T and its satellite broadcast unit DirecTV described the traditional pay-TV model as a "cash cow" and "golden goose," suggesting customers were at risk of price hikes.

 

The 23-page complaint also said the deal would slow the industry’s transition to online video and other new distribution models.

AT&T, which sees the deal as a way to compete against emerging technology companies such as Netflix Inc <NFLX.O> and Amazon.com Inc's <AMZN.O> Prime Video, described the lawsuit as "a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent.”

 

AT&T head lawyer David McAtee said vertical mergers, between companies on different steps in a supply chain, are routinely approved.

 

"We see no legitimate reason for our merger to be treated differently,” said McAtee, adding that AT&T is confident a judge will reject the Justice Department’s case. The Obama administration approved a similar vertical deal in 2011 to allow cable company Comcast Corp <CMCSA.O> to acquire NBCUniversal.

 

AT&T Inc is prepared to go to trial as soon as possible, lead trial counsel Daniel Petrocelli, a partner at O’Melveny & Myers, told reporters on Monday.

 

The legal challenge ramps up hostilities after AT&T rejected the Justice Department's demand earlier this month to divest DirecTV or Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting - which contains news network CNN - in order to win antitrust approval.

 

The move may be a sign that the Trump administration will look closely at other big mergers.

 

Time Warner's shares dropped 1.1 percent to close at $87.71, while AT&T shares closed up 0.4 percent at $34.64.

 

The deal has been a political lightning rod since it was hatched in October 2016. During his campaign, Trump said that reporters covered him unfairly and has continued to attack CNN as president, which he has labeled as "fake news." He has not commented on the AT&T deal since his inauguration in January.

 

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declined to say last week if anyone from the White House had discussed the merger with any Justice Department officials.

 

VIDEO BUNDLING

 

The No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier is trying to buy Time Warner, which also owns the premium channel HBO and movie studio Warner Bros, so it can bundle video entertainment on its mobile service.

 

The Justice Department's lawsuit cited internal Time Warner documents that said long-term contracts to show live sporting events like college basketball and baseball would help allow it to achieve "targeted rate increases."

 

The lawsuit also said AT&T and Comcast, which control almost half of the pay-TV market, "would have an increased incentive and ability to harm competition by impending online competitors they consider a threat."

 

The complaint's focus on raising the costs of DirecTV's rivals and hampering the move to online video is consistent with normal antitrust concerns, said Henry Su, a partner in the law firm Constantine Cannon.

 

"The theories that are being espoused (in the complaint) are not out on the edge or untested theories. They're espousing what we consider traditional theories of vertical harm," said Su. "It doesn't look like a stretch."

 

Aside from Trump and the Justice Department, the deal is also opposed by an array of consumer groups and smaller television networks.

 

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said he was pleased that the department was seeking to stop the merger but worried about White House interference in that decision.

 

"The Department of Justice can anticipate a tough battle, but it deserves support for the goal of protecting against undue power," Blumenthal said in a statement.

 

"I remain appalled by President Trump’s attempts to weaponize antitrust law because he disagrees with CNN’s coverage, and I will continue to stand against any improper influence by the White House."

 

Last week, the Justice Department had approached 18 state attorneys general asking them to join the challenge, but as of Monday none had publicly agreed to do so, Reuters reported.

 

Democratic state attorneys general tend to join antitrust lawsuits and may be hesitant to work with Trump's Justice Department while traditional Republican state attorneys general would be skeptical of a lawsuit to stop a vertical merger, said Seth Bloom, a veteran of the Justice Department who is now in private practice.

 

"In a complaint of this sort, it would be expected that state AGs would sign on to it," he said. "I don't know if it ultimately will mean anything."

 

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Diane Bartz; Editing by Bill Rigby)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-11-21

[lannarebirth]

I'm not hopeful under this administration or any other one I can foresee, but I'd like to think the anti trust division of the DOJ is just getting warmed up. Not just against outright monopolies but defacto monopolies that have been able to squeeze out competitors through anti competitive practices.

[Langsuan Man]

This sudden concern for the consumer exhibited by the White House is via the DOJ is purely political, Trump is trying to get back at CNN, he could care less about AT&T

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/11/19/trump-administrations-politicized-merger-editorials-debates/852960001/

[lannarebirth]

1 minute ago, Langsuan Man said:

This sudden concern for the consumer exhibited by the White House is via the DOJ is purely political, Trump is trying to get back at CNN, he could care less about AT&T

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/11/19/trump-administrations-politicized-merger-editorials-debates/852960001/

Yeah, I think he's probably doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. Not surprising.

[Srikcir]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

"The Department of Justice can anticipate a tough battle, but it deserves support for the goal of protecting against undue power,"

To be fair it was during President's Obama administration that Deputy Assistant Attorney General For Litigation Antitrust Division Jon Sallet made a personal case (albeit under DOJ letterhead) for DOJ to challenge more vertical mergers for anti-trust issues: The Interesting Case of the Vertical Merger, November 17, 2016. (not reader friendly)

Ultimately the AT&T Inc/Time Warner Inc merger anti-trust case will depend on facts and not on any political intent.

the_interesting_case_of_the_vertical_merger.pdf

[IAMHERE]

I hate to think POTUS is reading from a page of Nixons on  how to deal with enemies using the power of the federal government.

[hawker9000]

12 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

I hate to think POTUS is reading from a page of Nixons on  how to deal with enemies using the power of the federal government.

yadda yadda yadda.   Yeah, we know.  Big bad Trump again.   Well, if we're talking about "how to deal with enemies using the power of the federal government", he'd have far more to learn from reading Obama scripts  (You really need to learn who Lois Lerner is....   Or maybe read up on "Fast and Furious".   Plenty of power abuse lessons from the 8 years leading up to last November...   Not that Trump, or anybody for that matter, has anything worthwhile to learn from boy statesman.)

 

 

 

 

 

[pegman]

Trump gets his ass handed to him. What a loser. Judge rules merger can go ahead with zero conditions. 

[lannarebirth]

31 minutes ago, pegman said:

Trump gets his ass handed to him. What a loser. Judge rules merger can go ahead with zero conditions. 

 

Trump was right about this one but for the wrong reasons.  Anti competive mergers are on the rise but the pendulum will swing back with a vengeance in the not too distant future I predict.

[pegman]

3 hours ago, lannarebirth said:

 

Trump was right about this one but for the wrong reasons.  Anti competive mergers are on the rise but the pendulum will swing back with a vengeance in the not too distant future I predict.

This deal is vertical so how does it harm consumers? 

[lannarebirth]

2 minutes ago, pegman said:

This deal is vertical so how does it harm consumers? 

 

It's vertical now. Then Comcast buys Fox. or Charter buys Disney. Then ATT/ Time Warner merges with Comcast/Fox who merge with Charter/Disney and then there was no one left to merge with. It's the thin end of the wedge.

[Srikcir]

4 hours ago, pegman said:

Trump gets his ass handed to him. What a loser. Judge rules merger can go ahead with zero conditions. 

The ruling was consistent with the history of (52) vertical mergers from 1994-2016:

•   (6) transactions abandoned [2016, 2015, 2002, 1999, two in 1998]
• (31) consent decrees allowing merger
• (15) final judgements allowing merger

https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2541&amp;context=facpub

The Justice Department hasn't announced whether it will appeal the case. But the judge noted the “staggering cost” of the investigation, litigation and trial, saying that it has “easily” run into tens of millions of dollars for the companies and the government should the government appeal.

https://variety.com/2018/biz/news/att-time-warner-merger-approved-1202840369/

 

[mtls2005]

6 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

The Justice Department hasn't announced whether it will appeal the case.

 

Given Trump's hatred of CNN I would imagine he's already asked ordered Mr. Magoo to appeal. He has no shame in using his office to negatively impact those businesses with whom he has a personal grudge (Amazon, Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, USPS).

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, mtls2005 said:

 

Given Trump's hatred of CNN I would imagine he's already asked ordered Mr. Magoo to appeal. He has no shame in using his office to negatively impact those businesses with whom he has a personal grudge (Amazon, Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, USPS).

We also know that AT&T paid a huge wedge to Trump’s personal lawyer Cohen.

 

This is currently under investigation.

[mtls2005]

Report says Trump ordered top adviser Cohn to block AT&T-Time Warner merger

"I want that deal blocked!” Trump reportedly fumed to Gary Cohn and White House chief of staff John Kelly during an Oval Office meeting in 2017. But Cohn refused.

 

President Donald Trump ordered one of his top advisers to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger last year, The New Yorker reported on Monday, citing a well-informed source.

 

In the late summer of 2017, Trump asked Gary Cohn, then Trump's chief economic adviser, to pressure the Justice Department to file a lawsuit to block a planned $85 billion merger between the two companies, according to the magazine.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/report-says-trump-ordered-top-adviser-cohn-block-t-time-n978906

[zydeco]

1 hour ago, mtls2005 said:

Report says Trump ordered top adviser Cohn to block AT&T-Time Warner merger

"I want that deal blocked!” Trump reportedly fumed to Gary Cohn and White House chief of staff John Kelly during an Oval Office meeting in 2017. But Cohn refused.

 

President Donald Trump ordered one of his top advisers to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger last year, The New Yorker reported on Monday, citing a well-informed source.

 

In the late summer of 2017, Trump asked Gary Cohn, then Trump's chief economic adviser, to pressure the Justice Department to file a lawsuit to block a planned $85 billion merger between the two companies, according to the magazine.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/report-says-trump-ordered-top-adviser-cohn-block-t-time-n978906

As some said a few years ago, Trump was doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. Everything is petty, pure narcissism with him.

[Berkshire]

5 hours ago, zydeco said:

As some said a few years ago, Trump was doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. Everything is petty, pure narcissism with him.

If Trump was "doing the right thing," it was purely coincidental.  It certainly wasn't his intention. 

[mtls2005]

Jane Meyer's New Yorker article broke many alarming stories within the trump administration, including this one where trump ordered Gary Cohn to stop this vertical merger because of his hatred of CNN.

 

trump supporters should probably not read this article, or if they do have a loved one nearby to clean up the mess when your head explodes.

 

FoxNews.com reporter Diane Falzone broke the Storm Daniels story, but Rupert Murdoch killed it.

 

The Making of the Fox News White House

 

However, in the late summer of 2017, a few months before the Justice Department filed suit, Trump ordered Gary Cohn, then the director of the National Economic Council, to pressure the Justice Department to intervene. According to a well-informed source, Trump called Cohn into the Oval Office along with John Kelly, who had just become the chief of staff, and said in exasperation to Kelly, “I’ve been telling Cohn to get this lawsuit filed and nothing’s happened! I’ve mentioned it fifty times. And nothing’s happened. I want to make sure it’s filed. I want that deal blocked!”

 

Cohn, a former president of Goldman Sachs, evidently understood that it would be highly improper for a President to use the Justice Department to undermine two of the most powerful companies in the country as punishment for unfavorable news coverage, and as a reward for a competing news organization that boosted him. According to the source, as Cohn walked out of the meeting he told Kelly, “Don’t you <deleted>* dare call the Justice Department. We are not going to do business that way.”

 

* my edit

 

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house