AT&T in the face to the american government or the merger with Time Warner trial

Chronic. AT&T against the department of justice. The poster of the film has an air of déjà-vu, as the seventh version of Star Wars or the twentieth James Bond. The old monopoly of american telecommunications is no stranger to the law courts. After three trials, the last of which took place in 1982, the firm was split into seven entities, before being absorbed by one of its former subsidiaries to become the first telecom operator in the country. It starts again this Monday, march 19, his adventures court in a lawsuit sounding in the face of the United States government that is opposed to the acquisition of the media giant Time Warner.

The big case is no longer the monopoly of the communications, but the marriage between a distributor of information, by cable or mobile phone, and a content provider, owner notably of CNN or HBO. This will be the trial of the convergence. This is why all telephone operators, cable and all the media groups of the world will closely follow the trial. And, in particular, Disney, which is seeking to buy its competitor, Fox, and Comcast, the giant cable that had already swallowed NBC and who could counter-attack on Fox.

AT&T explains that, to combat Google, Amazon or Apple, it must invest in the media, target fragile. The backdating of the competition wants him, the guardian of the interests of the consumer. And its yardstick is the price. It is feared that the merger of a telephone operator with a producer of series, films and shows is translated into more exclusivity, less competition, and at the end by a rise in prices. Moreover, if AT&T agrees to put $ 109 billion (89 billion euros) on the table, it is well to try to earn more money. This will not be easy for a group that has already registered close to 10 billion euros of net profit in 2017.

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