{"id":52487,"date":"2017-11-15T07:23:23","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T07:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=52487"},"modified":"2017-11-15T07:23:23","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T07:23:23","slug":"sessions-declines-to-say-if-white-house-asked-about-att-time-warner-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/business\/sessions-declines-to-say-if-white-house-asked-about-att-time-warner-merger.html","title":{"rendered":"Sessions declines to say if White House asked about AT&T Time Warner merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sessions declines to say if White House asked about AT&T Time Warner merger<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Sessions declines to say if White House asked about AT&T Time Warner merger: \u201cI am not able to comment on conversations or communications the Department of Justice top people have with top people at the White House,\u201d Sessions told a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing.<\/span><\/p>\n

President Donald Trump vowed to block the $85.4 billion merger during his presidential campaign and has repeatedly criticized Time Warner\u2019s CNN network, which he has accused of reporting \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Reuters reported that the Justice Department demanded last week that AT&T divest DirecTV or Time Warner\u2019s Turner Broadcasting unit in order to win approval of the deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson denied last week that he had offered to sell CNN to win approval. \u201cWe\u2019re prepared to litigate now\u201d over the deal, he said at a forum.<\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Greenfield, an analyst with brokerage BTIG, said in a note to clients that his firm believed that AT&T and Time Warner had been informed by the Justice Department that a lawsuit was imminent and that it could be filed as early as Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Greenfield said multiple sources had told him there was a meeting on Tuesday between the Justice Department and AT&T where the No. 1 U.S. pay-TV provider was told it would be sued to stop the deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Justice Department spokesman declined comment on the timing of any possible action. AT&T and Time Warner declined to comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Justice Department could file a lawsuit as early as this month to challenge the deal, sources told Reuters last week. AT&T is preparing to fight any lawsuit aggressively and would use Trump\u2019s attacks on CNN as part of its legal case, the sources said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The White House said in a statement last week that Trump did not talk to Sessions about the merger and \u201cno White House official was authorized to speak with the Department of Justice on this matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway told CNN last week that the White House would not interfere with the merger review.<\/span><\/p>\n

The deal is opposed by an array of consumer groups and smaller television networks on grounds it would give AT&T too much power over the content it would distribute to its wireless customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The DirectTV or Turner Broadcasting concessions demanded by the Justice Department\u2019s antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim,<\/span><\/p>\n

suggest he changed his view of the merger since saying in a 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

interview the deal was not \u201ca major antitrust problem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Government officials have denied the divestiture requests were because of CNN, saying they were based on concerns AT&T could hike prices on rival content distributors and block innovations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-time-warner-m-a-at-t\/sessions-declines-to-say-if-white-house-asked-about-att-time-warner-merger-idUSKBN1DE2JN<\/span><\/p>\n

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