AT&T reportedly in talks to hammer out Time Warner merger conditions
AT&T is in talks with federal officials on what conditions would help its proposed merger with Time Warner gain final government approval, according to published reports.
Bloomberg reported that early-stage talks on Time Warner merger conditions have begun between the company and anti-trust regulators, indicating that it may not be a question of if the merger is approved, but how; and what promises AT&T will have to make in order to assuage concerns that the $85 billion merger will harm competition.
The merger is still working its way through regulatory approvals; the European Commission approved the deal in March. AT&T has said that it expects the transaction to close by the end of this year. Meanwhile, AT&T is reportedly thinking about its business structure post-merger — which may impact the deal’s approval, if the company can convince regulators that network and content divisions would operate sufficiently independently of one another that AT&T’s own content wouldn’t end up being favored in a network delivery context. AT&T has also outlined plans to launch a new video service platform starting this fall, starting with its DirecTV Now and DirecTV application users. The platform “will eventually provide a consistent look and feel across AT&T consumer video services throughout the United States,” according to AT&T.
Democrats have indicated that they are skeptical of the efficacy of conditions for actually addressing competitive concerns after the merger is complete. Eleven Democrats Senators said in a June letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions that they were worried that AT&T would raise consumer prices, favor its own content over others or even “restrict its subscribers’ access to alternative viewpoints, such as those offered by competing news outlets like Fox, MSNBC, or Breitbart.” They were also skeptical about the efficacy of any behavioral conditions that the Justice Department might put on the deal, saying that “AT&T itself has a similarly troubling track record when it comes to compliance with its past promises,” citing price hikes after the DirecTV acquisition as an example.
President Trump’s nominee for the top anti-trust regulator, Makan Delrahim, has not yet been confirmed by the full Senate.
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