Incoming US antitrust boss favourable to AT&T-Time Warner merger
Makan Delrahim, who has been chosen by the White House to head the antitrust division of the Department of Justice, has said that AT&T's potential $85bn merger with Time Warner doesn't present any "major antitrust problems", despite Donald Trump claiming during his presidential campaign the deal represented "too much concentration of power in the hands of too few". Since being elected, Trump has softened his stance.
New Trump Antitrust Boss Friendly to AT&T Time Warner Merger President Donald Trump's pick to oversee the DOJ's Antitrust division has previously said he approved of AT&T's massive $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. The White House announced today that it had selected Makan Delrahim to be the assistant attorney general for antitrust, a key position that will be responsible for making or breaking many companies' M&A ambitions. In a recent interview Delrahim said he didn't see any "major antitrust problems" with AT&T's deal, which AT&T lobbyists have been selling for much of the year.

"The sheer size of it, and the fact that it’s media, I think will get a lot of attention,” Delrahim said in October. “However, I don’t see this as a major antitrust problem." That runs in stark contrast to President Trump's election-trail campaign to block the deal, and dismantle other deals like it. "In 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," Trump had said while campaigning. "Comcast's purchase of NBC concentrated far too much power in one massive entity that is trying to tell the voters what to think and what to do," Trump also said on the campaign trail. "Deals like this destroy democracy and we'll look at breaking that deal up and other deals like that. That should never, ever have been approved in the first place, they're trying to poison the mind of the American voter." Obviously the Comcast and NBC Universal union (merged since 2011) is going nowhere. And Trump's comments since have left the door open to a possible approval of AT&T Time Warner despite his campaign promise. "I have been on the record in the past of saying it’s too big and we have to keep competition," Trump said in January. "So, but other than that, I haven’t, you know, I haven’t seen any of the facts, yet. I’m sure that will be presented to me and to the people within government." AT&T's case is being "presented" by roughly 100 lobbyists day in, day out. Critics of the deal worry that giving AT&T more power over content could result in it blocking competitors from the licensing deals they'll need to compete with AT&T's DirecTV Now streaming service. Consumer advocates and other critics have also consistently stated that AT&T's been using usage caps and "zero rating" to give its own content an unfair overall advantage in the market. Delrahim was a lobbyist for AT&T from 2007 to 2008, but also fought against the attempted AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile on behalf of Dish Network. So readers: what's the chance you think the deal will be approved? So readers: what's the chance you think the deal will be approved?







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Most recommended from 30 comments

Angrychair

join:2000-09-20

Jacksonville, FL 23 recommendations Angrychair Member Trump a liar? Couldn't be. Only a rich white old man like him could possibly make change in a city full of rich white old businessmen! b10010011

Whats a Posting tag?

join:2004-09-07

united state 22 recommendations b10010011 Member Government by the business and for the business



But at least we don't have to worry about Hillary's emails anymore...



You really can't fix stupid. You have elected a billionaire that is appointing other billionaires to fix the system that made them all billionaires.But at least we don't have to worry about Hillary's emails anymore...You really can't fix stupid.

Anonf2570

@ri.net 13 recommendations Anonf2570 Anon In Trump we "Antitrust" I bet during the Trump administration that not only will this merger get passed, but when at&t withholds content from services such as Hulu to cripple them, and the streaming services tell the government that at&t won't give them a fair rate deal, the government won't look into it and will just tell them to resolve the rate dispute on their own (given that it won't be a normal dispute it will be at&t trying to stop full streaming from eating at television's dominance). It will be (this is an overdramatization but still) like someone getting beat up on the street, and everyone else turning their backs on them and pretending that it isn't happening, only instead of human victims or crimea, the victim here is gonna be competition.

Anon037de

@2607:fb90.x 5 recommendations Anon037de Anon Isn't this what happens in 3rd world? There is only 1 phone company, 1 cable company etc and they are all owned by the same rich guy?

buddahbless

join:2005-03-21

Premium 3 recommendations buddahbless Member Soon to be, ATT is a "Fake" cellular network... I don't like getting political however, if he and his administration are letting this deal go through, and ATT will be the parent company of CNN does this in turn mean that ATT will be a "Fake" cellular network? I knew they were the "death star" as we like to call them, but I didn't know they would be a fake cellular service provider too..



Note...To those who may be offended but are still supporting the crazy clown car, Sorry but hes proven that I and the majority of the american people can't take anything that comes out of his mouth serious or as truth, ever. rody_44

Premium Member

join:2004-02-20

Quakertown, PA 4 edits 2 recommendations rody_44 Premium Member unlike obama trump wont allow it. bank it Unlike obama that did let comcast suck up NBC. Trump wont allow at@t to be sucking up anyone. Watch and see. This site and karls reporting is getting so far out of this world its sickening. 8 yrears from now at@t will be the same place they are now. No matter how much the fear mongering left reports on. Trump is on record as saying he doesnt believe content providers should be owned by last mile delivery providers. As such he wont be approving at@t buying shit. No matter what Karl reports.



Bottom line is Trump wont allow At@t to be sucking up anyone. To get in front of karls left bias reporting im going to say the most controversial thing he will be allowing is a wireless transition that involves Tmobile and sprint. I for one think that will be a good thing. Better to have three big wireless providers competing than two big and two nobodies competing. Dam can dslreports get any more bias. LOL



Rest my case by saying lol. A guy Trump hired is on record as approving of a time warner, at@t merger. Jesus fing christ. Your guy allowed a comcast NBC merger. WTF was with that. At least at@t and time warner are both last mile providers. Your guy approved a merger that involves both a content provider and last mile provider. A provider i might add that can now raise rates too whatever they dam well please. Thanks to them charging themselves. Yea i know how much Comcast did for the democratic party. But really, sell out the country for a few political favors and donations. Thanks Democrats for that 5.00 a month surcharge on my cable bill for what i can get for free OTA. I hope Comcast at least gave you more than them millions in donations. Comcast did awful good at 5.00 a month charge for 65 billion customers. Comcast owes the democrats a LOT. At what they are ass raping us at.



Is reporting really getting this bad or is it just this site that doesnt point that out. jorcmg

join:2002-10-24

USA 1 edit 2 recommendations jorcmg Member In my opinion. If the DOJ doesn't move to file suit to block you can count on this merger going forward.



And if att challenges they have a great exhibit A in comcast nbcu.