AT&T could get antitrust approval from the Department of Justice in the next 60 days, according to sources at AT&T. The New York Post is stating that sources close to AT&T believe that a decision will be made in the next 60 days, and it should be an approval for the company. AT&T announced last October that it was purchasing Time Warner for a whopping $85 billion, and that would include all of Time Warner’s businesses, including the Cable News Network, CNN. Of course, this is only the first step in getting the merger approved, and AT&T will likely need to do some concessions to get approval from regulators for this deal, since it is essentially buying a competitor.
Buying Time Warner was part of AT&T’s plan to tie it in with DIRECTV and offer a great package, especially for cord cutters. DIRECTV NOW is already available on many platforms and with most of Time Warner’s content included, but owning the property would mean that it could shut out those channels from other competitors like Sony’s PlayStation VUE or Sling TV. However, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, stated that news channels like CNN are not part of AT&T’s overall plan. And that’s likely due to the fact that millennials aren’t really watching the news, or news networks like CNN. And that’s the demographic that AT&T is targeting with this purchase of Time Warner.
Now if this acquisition is approved, it would mean that President Trump didn’t follow through with his promise when campaigning for the presidency. The same day that the acquisition was announced, Trump had stated at a campaign stop that he would do what it takes to block this merger. And so far, he has done nothing about it. And it actually looks like the merger will go through. AT&T has been spending some big money as of late (but so has Verizon), after buying DIRECTV for $48.5 billion, it is now shelling out $85 billion for Time Warner. Which would make them the largest Pay TV and ISP in the country, and that’s pretty large. Comcast is currently the largest internet provider (AT&T surpassed them in Pay TV with the DIRECTV acquisition in 2015).