AT&T provides high speed Internet, voice, cable TV, DirecTV and is getting into security systems. Now they are looking to buy Time Warner Inc. This Time Warner is a different company from the Time Warner Cable that Charter bought a while back.
Shortly after the announcement Donald Trump, then still a candidate for President, said he would block the merger. In November of 2017 The U.S. Department of Justice decided to file a lawsuit to block the merger. Some say the lawsuit is a result of Trump's "war" with CNN, which is owned by Time Warner. Time Warner is the third largest entertainment company, after Comcast with NBC/Universal and Disney. Time Warner owns HBO, Cinemax, Turner Broadcasting and Warner Brothers.
Now, as a result of the Department of Justice filing a lawsuit against them, AT&T is giving itself some breathing room to finalize its $85 billion deal for Time Warner by extending the deadline for their merger to next year. AT&T requested a court date to be scheduled in February of next year for the Justice Department’s lawsuit. The DoJ wants the court date to be May 7th. The DoJ has said they are worried that AT&T will use Turner Broadcasting properties to broker an unfair advantage. Of course AT&T says they are willing to go to arbitration to sort out any issues with other video providers and distributers.
AT&T maintains that since Comcast's purchase of NBC/Universal of a few years ago was approved that the Justice Department shouldn't object to AT&T's purchase of Time Warner. The DoJ also approved the purchase of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks by Charter.
The purchase of Time Warner won't really affect the fact that AT&T provides Cable TV, Internet, voice, security systems and DirecTV but it does give them a bit of an advantage with all the content thay own with Time Warner.
