Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the net-neutrality-will-save-us...-oh-wait dept.

M&A gates open with judge's blessing on AT&T-Time Warner merger

A federal judge on Tuesday gave a ringing endorsement to AT&T Inc's planned acquisition of Time Warner Inc without any conditions, opening the door for companies such as Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc to pursue deals to buy creators of media content.

The ruling by Judge Richard Leon bit.ly/2Jxx6qE of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia brings an end to a six-week antitrust trial in which U.S. regulators argued that the $85 billion deal would give AT&T undue leverage against rival cable providers that relied on Time Warner's content.

The judge's strong approval, and scathing opinion that urged the government not to seek a stay if they opposed the ruling, will give telecommunications providers the confidence that similar types of acquisitions will also have a shot at clearing regulatory hurdles, and could spur other copycat mergers this year, industry analysts and dealmakers said.

See also: AT&T-Time Warner Ruling Shows a Need to Reboot Antitrust Laws (archive)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Apparition on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:43AM (7 children)

    by Apparition (6835) on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:43AM (#692646) Journal

    AT&T now owns Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The Legion of Doom finally won.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Funny=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:58AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:58AM (#692651)

    Looks like we're in the Injustice: Gods Among Us [wikipedia.org] universe.

  • (Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Thursday June 14 2018, @03:44AM (5 children)

    by opinionated_science (4031) on Thursday June 14 2018, @03:44AM (#692682)

    I marked this funny. Have you *seen* how bad the DC movies are?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Nerdfest on Thursday June 14 2018, @04:12AM (3 children)

      by Nerdfest (80) on Thursday June 14 2018, @04:12AM (#692694)

      Have you seen "Wonder Woman"?

      • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Thursday June 14 2018, @06:41AM (1 child)

        by coolgopher (1157) on Thursday June 14 2018, @06:41AM (#692737)

        Yeah. I found it utterly underwhelming. Boring as watching paint dry. 110% formula, lousy script. The actors seemed to do the best they could under the circumstances, which is the best I can say about it.

        Of course, it wasn't the terrible mess known as Batman vs Superman, but it was still a bad movie in my opinion.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 14 2018, @07:34AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 14 2018, @07:34AM (#692751)

          I enjoyed batman vs superman. it's true that they could have handled the "I've changed my mind" Batman moment a bit better, and the whole alternate reality/time-travel thing is kinda confused, but I think it's in line with other superhero movies.
          (by the way, I don't consider the Dark Knight Trilogy a superhero movie, and I don't think it would be fair to compare "batman vs superman" with any of those three).

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:24PM

        by opinionated_science (4031) on Thursday June 14 2018, @01:24PM (#692870)

        twice. I quite liked it. But compared to the whole Marvel "infinity stone" thread, DC has failed monumentally, even though one movie might be quite watchable.

    • (Score: 2) by Apparition on Thursday June 14 2018, @04:57AM

      by Apparition (6835) on Thursday June 14 2018, @04:57AM (#692707) Journal

      I thought Man of Steel was a perfectly fine Superman origin film... up until the very end. Wonder Woman was a great film from start to finish. The less said about Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad the better. Justice League I think was underrated. Don't get me wrong, it's not a good film. But it's a perfectly serviceable blockbuster movie.

      Movies were never DC's real strong suit though. It's television and animated films where DC shines.