A U.S. appeals court upheld on Tuesday a lower court ruling that wireless and satellite TV provider AT&T Inc’s deal to buy content maker Time Warner for $85.4-billion was legal under antitrust law.
“The government’s objections that the district court misunderstood and misapplied economic principles and clearly erred in rejecting the quantitative model are unpersuasive,” the judges said in their opinion.The Justice Department had asked the court to declare the deal illegal, arguing that AT&T, which owns DirecTV, would use ownership of Time Warner’s content, such as CNN and HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” to make pay-TV rivals pay more, thus raising prices for consumers.
The merger, which was announced in October 2016, closed on June 14 shortly after Judge Richard Leon ruled the deal was legal under antitrust law.
globebusiness tHiS iS wHy wE nEEd soCIAlisUM