Federal Judge to Decide if AT&T Can Buy Time Warner

Tuesday could mark the end of the long saga of AT&T’s pursuit of Time Warner.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s is planning to announce Tuesday in a federal court in Washington, D.C., his decision on whether AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner can move forward. The announcement is scheduled for 4:00 p.a. Tuesday. The decision has the potential to reshape corporate America, especially at the unstable intersection of technology, telecommunications, and media. To be sure, companies such as Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Google, and Disney will all be paying close attention. A win for the government, which sued to block the deal 20 months ago, could curtail the survival-of-the-biggest approach that has led to ever more consolidation in telecom and media companies. It could set new legal precedent that would allow antitrust enforcement lawyers at the U.S. Department of Justice to more closely police mega-mergers and the growth of technology companies into communications and commerce conglomerations. If AT&T wins the day, it will likely set off a new scramble for size, scale, and diverse offerings from Silicon Valley tech companies, traditional media companies, and telecommunications companies. American consumers could face a marketplace dominated by a few vertically integrated megacompanies that own social media networks, movie studios, television news and sports channels, wireless telephone networks, and cloud computing networks. (Read more)

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