Trump’s Revenge: DOJ Demands CNN Sale To Approve AT&T-Time Warner Deal
by Tyler Durden
Nov 8, 2017 1:58 PM
After the DOJ’s antitrust division let it be known that it was preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger, something that President Donald Trump famously insinuated might happen during the campaign, it appears a week of rushed negotiations with the DOJ and the two companies have yielded a compromise.
And unsurprisingly, the DOJ is requesting that Time Warner sell CNN – the network that Trump has repeatedly bashed and labeled as “fake news” – as part of a deal that would allow the merger to move forward, the Financial Times reported. However, that isn’t the only condition; the DOJ is apparently taking a hard line with the merger, in accordance with Trump’s publicly expressed wishes.
AT&T has been told by the US Department of Justice that it needs to sell CNN, Time Warner’s cable news channel, to get its $84.5bn acquisition of the media company approved, according to three people with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
The sale of CNN, which President Donald Trump has fiercely criticised as “fake news”, is just one of the demands being made by the US antitrust authority in order to sign off on the deal, those involved in the talks said. But it could prove a stumbling block.
AT&T is opposed to selling the TV network and is preparing to take the Trump administration to court, arguing the deal with Time Warner does not pose any competition violations.
“It’s all about CNN,” said one person with direct knowledge of the talks between the company and the DOJ, adding that the regulator made it clear to AT&T that if it sold CNN the deal would go through.
As recently as a week ago, the two companies said they still expected the merger to close despite reports of DOJ’s opposition. Their expected timeline had the deal closing by year-end. But John Stephens, AT&T’s chief financial officer, told a New York investor conference on Wednsday that “the closing of the deal is now uncertain,” which sent Time Warner shares tumbled and AT&T shares moving higher. Similars moves played out Wednesday after news about the deal’s conditions broke.
Trump isn’t the only one who’s raised his hackles about the deal. Consumer groups, wary of the consolidation of content creators and distribution networks, had advocated that Time Warner spin off CNN. One CNBC commentator speculated that selling CNN wouldn’t be a problem for AT&T because it’s not the core asset that the mobile provider wanted out of the deal.
The conditions represent a change of heart fo Makan Delrahim, the new head of the justice department’s antitrust division, who has been more conciliatory, saying before taking office that he did not believe the merger posed a “major antitrust problem”.
“The sheer size of it, and the fact that it’s media, I think will get a lot of attention,” Mr Delrahim told a Canadian TV station in 2016 after the AT&T deal with Time Warner was announced. “However, I don’t see this as a major antitrust problem.”
People with direct knowledge of the antitrust negotiations confirmed to the FT that Delrahim had changed his view since taking office. The deal was originally set to expire last month but AT&T last week extended its termination deadline “for a short period” while it waited for approval from US regulators.
marblenecltr
November 8, 2017 2:31 pm
They will never realize the immensity of the disaster from which they were saved! Hillary the most qualified? Such believers need institutional care, especially after the various corruptions have been revealed.
Brian
November 8, 2017 2:35 pm
All these damn mega-corps need to be throttled back. Funny how SNL made fun of the very thing they promote now. Censorship…..
It just doesn’t matter.
November 8, 2017 2:40 pm
Thank you, sir, can I have another?
Zarathustra
November 8, 2017 2:42 pm
Toady on the house floor, Congressman Al Green D. TX announced, “there Will Be a Vote on Impeachment Before Christmas.”
Decency did die that night. If these whiners had any decency, they would admit that they were lousy journalists, that their prejudices prevented them from even considering Trump might win, and resign their positions and get new jobs more suitable to their talents, like being greeters at Walmart.
If they had any decency they’d have jumped off tall buildings, and America would be the better for it.
nkit
November 8, 2017 3:00 pm
Funny how Trump’s victory was described as “A
victory for racism, hatred and bigotry.” It was a “White-lash” “A White-lash against a black president .” It is “push-back against the advancement of African Americans, Hispanics, and Muslims,” and so forth and so on blah, blah, blah ad nauseam.
Apparently it never occurred to some of these idiots, (or perhaps it did but it is unspeakable to them), that Trump’s victory was a push back against globalism and against the steady, unchecked growth of Marxism in this country. It was push-back against the intentional destruction of the United States and Western culture in an effort to usher in a New World Order of global communism. It was push-back against the destruction of nationalism both here and abroad. It is almost as if these fools can not understand why anyone would question the path that this country was on when Trump was elected.
More like pushback against a pathologically lying mullato homosexual muslim ‘president’ married to his male crossdressing partner who both did everything in their power to diminish and destroy America.
wdg
November 8, 2017 3:05 pm
Whoever put these media meltdown clips together in a YouTube video has made my day. What struck me most is that they really, really don’t get it. They don’t realize that Trump is not the end of this revolution, in fact he is barely the beginning. And before it has run its slow tortuous course they will all be on the street looking for jobs. There are a few that may make it as prostitutes…Woppishit Goldberg – I don’t think so…but the vast majority are so ugly and degenerate that sweeping floors may be their only prospect for employment. Can you even imagine the comment that women should rush out and get an abortion…because “we are going to be “f**ked”? If the women she is referring to are in need of an abortion, it is a good bet she has already been “f**ked”, perhaps by Weinstein are some other Hollywood predator/rapist. Or that meritocracy is dead because the brilliant Hillary, whose only achievement was to marry a serial rapist, wasn’t elected…despite running the “best” campaign. Only an idiot with a sub-70 IQ or a brainwashed fool could make such moronic comments. Of course, the MSM is a dead man walking and just needs to be put out of its misery. Hollywood packed full of whores, pedophiles and other degenerates will be burned to the ground. And Wall Street and the Fed will be bulldozed to oblivion after the residents of these dens of theft and plunder are transferred to jails.
Francis Marion
November 8, 2017 3:49 pm
That was nice.
Think of Trump what you will, when you piss off and bring to tears that many elitist, pompous self important ‘celebs’ and political hacks you know you’ve done something right.
In fact, given the crying, foot stomping, and threats (to leave) that came from much of the entertainment industry and given the light being pointed into the dark corners of said industry these days I’d say that much of that fear was probably real. And the fuckers should be afraid. They’re going to prison.
If nothing else I hope that Trump, as he becomes trapped in an inescapable financial and political black hole, brings the roof down on top of these conceited, whining deluded wind bags first.
Go Trump. Make ’em cry some more.
The Modern Chronicler
November 8, 2017 4:12 pm
I would very much like to write many paragraphs about my vivid memories from 1 year ago and the weeks/months preceding that night. Facebook and face-to-face debates followed by one person after another lamenting, crying, weeping, panicking as they expressed real fears of a coming dark age whereby fascism would rule the day, where all nonwhites would be sent to the slaughter, and where ignorant, unwashed, primitive white rednecks would rule.
What pathetic, ignorant, foolish, gullible people – and that so many were elitists who looked down on Trump supporters as retrograde, degenerate, and depraved illiterates only made it better than Trump defeated that embodiment of corruption and evil known as Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Their shock and grief is today remembered, and I only wonder how many are now realizing how deeply they were deceived as revelations demonstrate that it was their party and their candidate who was a crook who colluded with Russia – and that for all their accusations of Trump not paying what he owed in his businesses, that Barack Hussein Obama left his party in deep debt and that the DNC was broke and in debt.
What a truly glorious, delightful, and joyful evening that was. Literally one of the happiest nights of my life.
TPC
November 8, 2017 4:55 pm
Trump’s victory was the shot across the bow. More than half the country knows the path we are on leads to ruin. They may not be able to describe why. They may be going on feeling.
But they know that they are worse off today than they were 30 years ago and it pisses them off.
A vote for Trump was a message that the status quo wasn’t good enough anymore.
And still they don’t get it.
deplorably stanley
November 8, 2017 7:07 pm
I couldn’t make it through even a minute of that video.
_Who_ is actually even watching that shit to begin with? Rachael Maddow, The View? Rancid.
Stucky
November 8, 2017 8:05 pm
Much as Trump has disappointed … I certainly DO savor their pain. Every damned minute!
Schadenfreude … ya gotta be German to truly appreciate it.
Poet Warrior
November 9, 2017 8:04 pm
Those talking heads know nothing of building, motivating, negotiating or any other business activities that would be world wide …………… so there they sit blowing gas through their teeth ….. what some will do for a little money and shameful fame …. the world has turned a corner …. time for cleanup …. fill those fema camps with holdovers…………………. and other corrupt sworn-in servant that have violated their oath of office …………………………..
Trump’s Revenge: DOJ Demands CNN Sale To Approve AT&T-Time Warner Deal
by Tyler Durden
Nov 8, 2017 1:58 PM
After the DOJ’s antitrust division let it be known that it was preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger, something that President Donald Trump famously insinuated might happen during the campaign, it appears a week of rushed negotiations with the DOJ and the two companies have yielded a compromise.
And unsurprisingly, the DOJ is requesting that Time Warner sell CNN – the network that Trump has repeatedly bashed and labeled as “fake news” – as part of a deal that would allow the merger to move forward, the Financial Times reported. However, that isn’t the only condition; the DOJ is apparently taking a hard line with the merger, in accordance with Trump’s publicly expressed wishes.
AT&T has been told by the US Department of Justice that it needs to sell CNN, Time Warner’s cable news channel, to get its $84.5bn acquisition of the media company approved, according to three people with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
The sale of CNN, which President Donald Trump has fiercely criticised as “fake news”, is just one of the demands being made by the US antitrust authority in order to sign off on the deal, those involved in the talks said. But it could prove a stumbling block.
AT&T is opposed to selling the TV network and is preparing to take the Trump administration to court, arguing the deal with Time Warner does not pose any competition violations.
“It’s all about CNN,” said one person with direct knowledge of the talks between the company and the DOJ, adding that the regulator made it clear to AT&T that if it sold CNN the deal would go through.
As recently as a week ago, the two companies said they still expected the merger to close despite reports of DOJ’s opposition. Their expected timeline had the deal closing by year-end. But John Stephens, AT&T’s chief financial officer, told a New York investor conference on Wednsday that “the closing of the deal is now uncertain,” which sent Time Warner shares tumbled and AT&T shares moving higher. Similars moves played out Wednesday after news about the deal’s conditions broke.
Trump isn’t the only one who’s raised his hackles about the deal. Consumer groups, wary of the consolidation of content creators and distribution networks, had advocated that Time Warner spin off CNN. One CNBC commentator speculated that selling CNN wouldn’t be a problem for AT&T because it’s not the core asset that the mobile provider wanted out of the deal.
The conditions represent a change of heart fo Makan Delrahim, the new head of the justice department’s antitrust division, who has been more conciliatory, saying before taking office that he did not believe the merger posed a “major antitrust problem”.
“The sheer size of it, and the fact that it’s media, I think will get a lot of attention,” Mr Delrahim told a Canadian TV station in 2016 after the AT&T deal with Time Warner was announced. “However, I don’t see this as a major antitrust problem.”
People with direct knowledge of the antitrust negotiations confirmed to the FT that Delrahim had changed his view since taking office. The deal was originally set to expire last month but AT&T last week extended its termination deadline “for a short period” while it waited for approval from US regulators.
They will never realize the immensity of the disaster from which they were saved! Hillary the most qualified? Such believers need institutional care, especially after the various corruptions have been revealed.
All these damn mega-corps need to be throttled back. Funny how SNL made fun of the very thing they promote now. Censorship…..
Thank you, sir, can I have another?
Toady on the house floor, Congressman Al Green D. TX announced, “there Will Be a Vote on Impeachment Before Christmas.”
Did he say what for?
Decency did die that night. If these whiners had any decency, they would admit that they were lousy journalists, that their prejudices prevented them from even considering Trump might win, and resign their positions and get new jobs more suitable to their talents, like being greeters at Walmart.
If they had any decency they’d have jumped off tall buildings, and America would be the better for it.
Funny how Trump’s victory was described as “A
victory for racism, hatred and bigotry.” It was a “White-lash” “A White-lash against a black president .” It is “push-back against the advancement of African Americans, Hispanics, and Muslims,” and so forth and so on blah, blah, blah ad nauseam.
Apparently it never occurred to some of these idiots, (or perhaps it did but it is unspeakable to them), that Trump’s victory was a push back against globalism and against the steady, unchecked growth of Marxism in this country. It was push-back against the intentional destruction of the United States and Western culture in an effort to usher in a New World Order of global communism. It was push-back against the destruction of nationalism both here and abroad. It is almost as if these fools can not understand why anyone would question the path that this country was on when Trump was elected.
More like pushback against a pathologically lying mullato homosexual muslim ‘president’ married to his male crossdressing partner who both did everything in their power to diminish and destroy America.
Whoever put these media meltdown clips together in a YouTube video has made my day. What struck me most is that they really, really don’t get it. They don’t realize that Trump is not the end of this revolution, in fact he is barely the beginning. And before it has run its slow tortuous course they will all be on the street looking for jobs. There are a few that may make it as prostitutes…Woppishit Goldberg – I don’t think so…but the vast majority are so ugly and degenerate that sweeping floors may be their only prospect for employment. Can you even imagine the comment that women should rush out and get an abortion…because “we are going to be “f**ked”? If the women she is referring to are in need of an abortion, it is a good bet she has already been “f**ked”, perhaps by Weinstein are some other Hollywood predator/rapist. Or that meritocracy is dead because the brilliant Hillary, whose only achievement was to marry a serial rapist, wasn’t elected…despite running the “best” campaign. Only an idiot with a sub-70 IQ or a brainwashed fool could make such moronic comments. Of course, the MSM is a dead man walking and just needs to be put out of its misery. Hollywood packed full of whores, pedophiles and other degenerates will be burned to the ground. And Wall Street and the Fed will be bulldozed to oblivion after the residents of these dens of theft and plunder are transferred to jails.
That was nice.
Think of Trump what you will, when you piss off and bring to tears that many elitist, pompous self important ‘celebs’ and political hacks you know you’ve done something right.
In fact, given the crying, foot stomping, and threats (to leave) that came from much of the entertainment industry and given the light being pointed into the dark corners of said industry these days I’d say that much of that fear was probably real. And the fuckers should be afraid. They’re going to prison.
If nothing else I hope that Trump, as he becomes trapped in an inescapable financial and political black hole, brings the roof down on top of these conceited, whining deluded wind bags first.
Go Trump. Make ’em cry some more.
I would very much like to write many paragraphs about my vivid memories from 1 year ago and the weeks/months preceding that night. Facebook and face-to-face debates followed by one person after another lamenting, crying, weeping, panicking as they expressed real fears of a coming dark age whereby fascism would rule the day, where all nonwhites would be sent to the slaughter, and where ignorant, unwashed, primitive white rednecks would rule.
What pathetic, ignorant, foolish, gullible people – and that so many were elitists who looked down on Trump supporters as retrograde, degenerate, and depraved illiterates only made it better than Trump defeated that embodiment of corruption and evil known as Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Their shock and grief is today remembered, and I only wonder how many are now realizing how deeply they were deceived as revelations demonstrate that it was their party and their candidate who was a crook who colluded with Russia – and that for all their accusations of Trump not paying what he owed in his businesses, that Barack Hussein Obama left his party in deep debt and that the DNC was broke and in debt.
What a truly glorious, delightful, and joyful evening that was. Literally one of the happiest nights of my life.
Trump’s victory was the shot across the bow. More than half the country knows the path we are on leads to ruin. They may not be able to describe why. They may be going on feeling.
But they know that they are worse off today than they were 30 years ago and it pisses them off.
A vote for Trump was a message that the status quo wasn’t good enough anymore.
And still they don’t get it.
I couldn’t make it through even a minute of that video.
_Who_ is actually even watching that shit to begin with? Rachael Maddow, The View? Rancid.
Much as Trump has disappointed … I certainly DO savor their pain. Every damned minute!
Schadenfreude … ya gotta be German to truly appreciate it.
Those talking heads know nothing of building, motivating, negotiating or any other business activities that would be world wide …………… so there they sit blowing gas through their teeth ….. what some will do for a little money and shameful fame …. the world has turned a corner …. time for cleanup …. fill those fema camps with holdovers…………………. and other corrupt sworn-in servant that have violated their oath of office …………………………..