That Crashing Sound? Another Trump Promise Shatters-AT&T Merging Time Warner
No surprise here, but resignation at what this means for pricing, consumer rights and privacy.
Trump’s campaign promise
When he was campaigning for president, Trump said that AT&T/Time Warner is “a deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.” Last month, there were reports that White House officials have discussed using the merger review as “leverage” against CNN, whose news coverage has been frequently criticized by Trump. But Trump hasn’t repeated his promise to block the merger since becoming president.
One complication that could cause delay of the merger’s approval is that the Senate has not yet confirmed Trump’s nominee to run the DOJ’s antitrust division. The nominee, former DOJ antitrust lawyer Makan Delrahim, has said the AT&T/Time Warner deal does not pose a “major antitrust problem.”
Delrahim could be confirmed by the Senate as early as September. But antitrust officials might not even feel the need to wait that long to approve the merger, as the discussions have proceeded to their current advanced stage despite the antitrust division’s top spot sitting vacant. “The Justice Department can still make antitrust decisions without Mr. Delrahim, though a political appointee usually has the final say on whether to challenge a major transaction,” the Journal report said.