News
Report claims telco, Justice Department not close to reaching a deal.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) is preparing an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T’s planned acquisition of Time Warner, it emerged this week.
A Wall Street Journal report cited sources on Thursday who claimed that while both sides are discussing terms that could lead to a settlement, the two are not close to reaching an agreement.
AT&T has said repeatedly that it expects to complete the US$84.5 billion transaction by the end of this year.
The deal has already been approved by regulators the world over, including those in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and at the European Union.
A report in early September claimed that the U.S. planned to greenlight the transaction that same month. If the Journal’s sources are correct, and both sides really are not close to finding a compromise, then AT&T could struggle to meet its end-of-year target.
In a separate report by Reuters on Thursday, AT&T insisted it is standard practice for the DoJ and companies subject to antitrust reviews to "prepare for all possible scenarios". The U.S. telco also highlighted the DoJ’s 40-year history of approving vertical mergers like AT&T-Time Warner on grounds that they do not remove competitors for the market.
However, consumer groups have stressed that Time Warner and AT&T – which has a major presence in the content space via its DirecTV unit – are already large media conglomerates in their own right. Therefore a combination of the two risks damaging competition.
