AT&T and Time Warner are delaying the completion of their merger to June

© Reuters. AT&T AND TIME WARNER are DELAYING The completion OF THEIR MERGER TO JUNE

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – telecom operator AT&T and the group of media and entertainment Time Warner, which seek to amalgamate despite the opposition of the u.s. department of Justice (DoJ), have pushed back the deadline of their operation to June 21, said AT&T on Friday.

The department of Justice has filed a complaint on November 20 to block this transaction of $ 85 billion, the trial beginning on 19 march 2018.

The DoJ said in its complaint that such a merger would give AT&T the ability to charge its competitors “hundreds of millions of dollars more per year” in the pay tv to have access to channels and movies from Time Warner.

Such a situation would be reflected in the price of the subscriptions of individuals to the pay-tv service in the United States, according to the DoJ.

In the aftermath of the announcement of the complaint by the DoJ, Donald Trump had reiterated his disagreement with the proposed acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T.

Judge Richard Leon had said during a hearing at the us district court for the District of Columbia on 7 December that there would be no decision by the target date originally fixed in the contract of merger of the two companies, but that it would rule at the end of April or in may.

According to the previous agreement, each company could terminate the transaction if it was not finalized by April 22.

In a document sent on the 28th of November to the justice and signed by the two groups, AT&T and Time Warner emphasized that they were present in a very competitive market, adding that they would remain after that would be finalized their merger, which would take the form of the takeover of Time Warner by AT&T.

(Diane Bartz, Thierry Tranchant for French service, edited by Benoît Van Overstraeten)