The Justice Department’s lawsuit to block AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner seems more like a detour than a permanent shift in the federal government’s antitrust strategy.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in a D.C. federal court, had many lawyers and antitrust scholars wondering about the government’s case. It hasn’t successfully blocked a vertical deal like this in several decades, lawyers noted. And this time it appears to be partly politically motivated.
President Donald Trump has made no secret of his disdain for CNN, Time Warner’s cable news channel that he has frequently called “fake news.” And last year on the campaign trail he promised he would not approve the AT&T-Time Warner deal under his administration.