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realDonaldTrump [soylentnews.org] writes:

THIS IS THE COMPLETE STORY AND WILL NEED FURTHER EDITING. IT MAY ALSO BE COVERED BY COPYRIGHT AND THUS SHOULD BE ACKNOWLEDGED AND QUOTED RATHER THAN PRINTED IN IT'S ENTIRETY!!! "The Justice Department is trying to undo AT&T [wsj.com] Inc.’s T 1.13% [wsj.com] purchase of Time Warner Inc., appealing the ruling that last month struck down one of the era’s highest-profile antitrust challenges.

The government initiated the appeal Thursday with a two-page notice in federal court, a month after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon rejected Justice Department arguments [wsj.com] that the more than $80 billion cash-and-stock deal would suppress competition in the pay-TV industry.

AT&T closed the acquisition a short time after Judge Leon’s ruling, but agreed to keep Time Warner’s cable networks in a business unit separate from AT&T’s communication assets for now, in case the government chose to appeal.

The appeal won’t change anything at AT&T while the district court’s ruling remains in effect, but comes as an unwelcome distraction for the company, where executives were eager to plunge into the high-profile world of show business.

The matter now goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where a three-judge panel will consider the Justice Department’s claims that Judge Leon was incorrect. The appeals process could take many months, leaving lingering uncertainty over AT&T’s plans.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit against the merger was one of the most anticipated antitrust cases in a generation, and Judge Leon’s ruling was one of the department’s most stinging losses.

The AT&T merger is a 'vertical' one, combing its leading position as a pay-TV distributor—the so-called pipes, such as its DirecTV satellite service—with Time Warner content: its popular cable channels including HBO, CNN, TNT and TBS.

In a more typical antitrust case, the government challenges horizontal deals involving two companies in the same business that compete head to head. The AT&T case marked the first time in 40 years that a court had seen a fully litigated challenge to a vertical merger [wsj.com]. And it was the first major enforcement action by President Donald Trump’s antitrust chief at the Justice Department, Makan Delrahim, who filed the lawsuit two months after receiving Senate confirmation." wsj.com/articles/justice-department-to-appeal-court-ruling-allowing-at-t-time-warner-merger-1531427031 [wsj.com]

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