The american Justice opposing the merger between AT&T and Time Warner


An AT&T store in New York, 23 October 2016 (Photo by KENA BETANCUR. AFP)

The competition authorities in the united states are of opposite Monday, the merger between the telecommunications company u.s.-based AT&T and the media group Time Warner, a folder became very political after the intervention of Donald Trump.

The ministry of Justice said in a complaint that the merger, in an amount according to the department of $ 108 billion, that it would be detrimental to consumers.

But AT&T has qualified the decision of “radical and inexplicable, given decades of anti-trust legislation”.

“Vertical mergers such as this one are regularly accepted, because they benefit consumers without undermining competition in the market,” still said AT&T, adding that “we see no reason that our merger will be treated differently”.

This merger, announced in October 2016, has taken a political dimension with the criticisms recently made by Donald Trump in the chain of information is CNN, owned by Time Warner, and that the american president calls regularly from “fake news” (fake media).

He had said during the election campaign, before his election a year ago, he would oppose this operation is expected to create a behemoth with more than $ 142 million mobile subscribers with a catalog of content sought in the sports, movies and tv series and also the leadership in the online video.

According to press information, the competition authorities in the u.s. were requested in the context of discussions with AT&T that it will sell CNN to get a green light to the merger.

But its CEO, Randall Stephenson, had, in public statements, resolutely ruled out this possibility in affirming the November 8, “I have never offered to sell CNN and have no intention to do so”.

The telecommunications landscape and the american media is in the middle of reinventing itself to respond to the changing habits of consumers who are moving away increasingly from traditional tv to watch programmes and films in favour of services like Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).com, Hulu, and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) TV.

AT&T is one of the two largest providers of telecommunications services in the United States and, in addition to CNN, Time Warner also owns HBO and the movie studios Warner Bros.

AT&T also has in its portfolio television service via satellite Direct TV.

Another operator of télécommunciations, Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), for its part, had acquired in 2013 to 49% of the chain of radio-tv NBCUniversal it does not already own in industrial conglomerate General Electric (NYSE:GE).

According to the american press, Comcast would also be in line to acquire part of the activities of the group of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, which would also be coveted by the telecommunications operator american Verizon (NYSE:VZ) who comes to redeem the core of the activities of the internet portal Yahoo!.

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