AT&T Inc. was cleared by a judge to take over Time Warner Inc. in an $85 billion deal that will fuel the mobile-phone giant’s evolution into a media powerhouse and could spark a wave of new mergers.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon on Tuesday rejected the Justice Department’s request for an order blocking the Time Warner acquisition, saying the government failed to make its case that the combination would lead to higher prices for pay-TV subscribers. The judge put no conditions on the deal.
More consolidation in the US tech and media landscape. This doesn’t bode well for American internet users and TV/movie fans.
“the government failed to make its case that the combination would lead to higher prices for pay-TV subscribers”
I wonder what the judge’s price was.
I wonder why paid TV was the central issue at all. Can’t people get away from the idiot box for an hour? I swear I can watch their brains shrink whenever they get in front of a cable TV.
I’d be more concerned about the wider infrastructure, though to be honest, what else should we do? We don’t have a profusion of local ISPs trying to carve up a piece of these markets for themselves and, judging from my experience with Time Warner, this may actually be an improvement in that regard. It’s all well and good to cry unfair monopoly, but you can’t exactly have an unfair monopoly where no one else really seems to be interested in trying to compete.
Could be the judge was Republican, they are so cheap, they will do corruption for free.
Bell has over 130 years of experience, how to create a monopoly and profit from it.