The Justice Department is suing to block the AT&T–Time Warner merger
The Justice Department today filed suit to block the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner. The news, reported first by Bloomberg and later in subsequent reports from Reuters and Politico, is a drastic heightening of tensions between the DOJ and AT&T over what would be one of the largest media and telecommunications combinations in history.
Until today, only secondhand accounts from the inner workings of the merger approval process suggested the DOJ may not approve the deal, with the shadow of President Donald Trump hanging over the situation due to his personal feud with Time Warner-owned CNN. Now, however, the DOJ has officially laid out its argument for moving to block the merger, saying the combination of AT&T’s distribution...