AT&T claims they "Demolished" Justice Dept at Time Warner Merger Trial - Sensationalist Headlines

AT&T Says It "Demolished" Justice Department at Time Warner Merg.. The trial is over. And the decision is coming. As U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon prepares to shake up the media industry with his much-anticipated decision in the Justice Department's lawsuit to block the merger between AT&T and Time Warner, both sides have submitted post-trial briefs. The defendants, represented by attorney Daniel Petrocelli, are taking a victory lap of sorts. "The government’s central prediction of harm rests on the premise that AT&T would use Time Warner’s Turner content as a 'weapon' against rival distributors by threatening to withhold it during bargaining, thereby forcing them to pay higher prices," states the brief. "The trial evidence demolished that premise — starting from the government’s own express concession that post-merger Turner would not, in fact, ever withhold content, thereby conceding away any prospect that Turner could ever credibly threaten to withhold." The would-be merging parties paint the government as relying upon "predictable complaints from AT&T rivals," "a few documents — most authored by lower-level employees," and an economist, Carl Shapiro, whose model "collapsed at trial when confronted with the real-world evidence." At the end of the trial, the judge directed the parties to address remedies if he should find — or even if he doesn't — that the merger violates antitrust law. AT&T doesn't want to play that game. Arguing that no remedial order is necessary, Petrocelli writes, "This is not a close case."

We're heading towards the most boring dystopia ever

Corporations are the most powerful entities in the world and have been for a while now. Not sure if I'm comfortable with the free hand of the market around the necks of our Governments and people.

huh, its almost like this whole thing was done without any valid reason, and done specifically just to attack this one deal... its not like the president would use the justice department to try to kill a merger that would potentially force CNN to be curtailed... nope not this president, he's bigly for freedom

Why everytime a merger happens, ya'll scream the end of the world?

Mergers are one thing. Mergers resulting in... say... one company holding 40% of all cable and broadcast content rights on its own is BAD. Mergers resulting in literally only 3 cell providers in the entire continental united states is BAD. With this deal, ATT would hold the majority market share of both wireless providers and internet/TV and landline providers, putting them in literally the #1 spot for all telecommunication infrastructure in the entire US.

Welp, guess it's time to start my own internet (again). Seriously I feel like this is becoming a weekly thing where some major facet of communication's (internet, tv, phone, radio, etc.) is going to get fucked at the google search count for "how to build your own internet" spikes about 80%

Between the FCC working overtime to remove consumer protections, every major telco working equal overtime to take advantage of the chaos before some order is restored, and the constant fight on capital hill and in every state to put those protections back, it IS a weekly thing and has been for months.

capitalism ho!

The best way to keep those corporations in check is to let them crash the economy. The worst way to do it is to let them crash it, then reward them by giving them billions of dollars.

But they only got rewarded because they have their fingers deep in government, lmao.

AT&T was split up by Ronald Reagan, so yeah I think we should freak out when they get more power

I wish companies would not show open contempt for their customers and governments.

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/108627/417532ec-1b2c-4789-93a5-6f84687a20c8/image.png Always relevant. We have long passed the point where the hammer should drop and say "you cannot expand any further, invest in what you have"