美国有线新闻 CNN AT&T与美国司法部对簿公堂 能否收购时代华纳备受关注

 

AZUZ: A trial is going on right now that's closely being watched by companies and legal experts around America. AT&T is trying to buy Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, for more than $85 billion.

Today, AT&T is a large wireless company and satellite TV distributor. But what it does not have is content programming and entertainment. And that's why it wants Time Warner, which includes CNN, HBO, Warner Brothers, TNT and TBS.

The merger would be one of the biggest media deals in history, but the U.S. government is trying to block it and one big question is, will the merger break U.S. antitrust laws, which are designed to keep American companies from having too much control over the market.

HADAS GOLD, CNNMONEY: The antitrust case of the decade is here. It's a case that will be thought in law schools for years to come.

Back in 2016, when AT&T announced plans to buy Time Warner, which, yes, owns CNN, most media analysts assumed that the deal would be approved.

After all, it's a vertical merger. That means it's two companies that don't directly compete with one another.

Think of it like a shoe company buying the leather manufacturer. So, a year later, when the Justice Department sued to block the $85 billion bid, it was a big deal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Breaking news here, the Justice Department is said to file a lawsuit to block AT&T's takeover of Time Warner.

GOLD: At first, AT&T claimed selective enforcement, basically saying that it was personal between the president and CNN. But now, it's unlikely we'll even hear the words "Donald Trump" during this trial. A judge blocked AT&T's request to use messages between the administration and regulators about the merger. So, the company will not be using the political bias argument in court. Instead, we're in for a battle fought on more traditional antitrust grounds.

The Justice Department says the combination of AT&T and Time Warner will lead to higher prices for consumers, and it argues AT&T could hog its content, must-haves like sports and news, by not making it available to outside distribution. AT&T argues that it needs this merger to better compete with upstarts like Facebook, Amazon and Netflix. It says there's no evidence prices will go up and that they won't withhold content from anybody, because then they'd make less money.

It's not just AT&T and Time Warner who care about the outcome of this case. Other media companies considering mergers like Disney and 21st Century Fox are watching carefully.

If the Justice Department succeeds in blocking the merger, some see signals of a new era of government scrutiny. That might stop some future deals from going forward.

That's why this case could change the course of media industry history.