The third largest company AT&T (Satellite and Tel-communications Company) and the tailing in the list- Time Warner have been legally granted by the courts to merge officially. The $85 Million bid merger case has been waiting on a final ruling from Judge Richard Leon since November 2016.
Trump Justice Department had been up in arms against the vertical merger of the companies over the antitrust law. A notion lingered in the wake of the case as it prolonged until yesterday night when the Judge ruled in all favour (without any terms or conditions) of the two allied conglomerates who have been working together in an interdependent relationship. It was unusual for a merger of this kind to be blocked by the government causing a suspicious political motive. Since, it is no secret Trump has been against CNN media which is a subsidiary company of Time Warner, before he was even president.
“As an example of the power structure I'm fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few," he said back in October 2016. Although, Justice Department antitrust’s top official, Maklan Delrahim sworn an affidavit reputing this.
Judge Leon sternly advised for the government not to appeal the case and warned against interfering with a merger deal like this in the future, in the sole reason they had no definite grounds. "The Government has failed to meet its burden of proof to show that the merger is likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition," he wrote in his ruling.
Starting next week CNN, HBO, Warner Bros and all other Time Warner brands will be in the hands of distributing tel-comm giant AT&T, as they guaranteed to close the deal by June 20th . This is a move which will cause a ripple effect and change the media landscape forever as we go forward in tech evolution. Comcast is in a procurement deal with 21st Century FOX and is anticipated to be the second biggest deal as more tech companies line up to take-over other media companies.
Will the Trump Justice Department appeal? Keep it here for more news of this!
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