AT&T/Time Warner Deal Could Open the Floodgates for Mergers
*By Mike Teich*
If AT&T's $85 billion bid for Time Warner was allowed to proceed, it could lead to a new wave of media and telecom mergers, and smooth the way for deals like the Sprint-T-Mobile merger announced on Sunday, said Dan Primack, the business editor at Axios.
A federal judge heard arguments Monday over the potential impact of the AT&T-Time Warner deal on consumers. The Department of Justice sued to block the deal for fear it would give AT&T too much power. The wireless company argued there is plenty of competition from content companies such as Disney and new media powerhouses like Google and Netflix that would counterbalance its influence if it were to take over a content shop like Time Warner.
The lead lawyer for AT&T and Time Warner told Judge Richard J. Leon of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that blocking the merger would [dampen competition](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/technology/att-time-warner-trial.html), according to The New York Times. The judge is expected to rule in June.
Primack said in an interview Tuesday with Cheddar that AT&T doesn't need the deal to go through in order to survive, but it would enable the telecom company to challenge new media rivals.
If the acquisition was allowed, Primack said "we will see a run on mergers" in media and telecom. If the deal was quashed, he said there will be a "big freeze."
That could mean a halt ー for the third time ー to the merger of the third and fourth largest wireless carriers, T-Mobile and Sprint. Their $26 billion dollar deal must be approved by federal regulators.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/future-of-telecom-mergers-hinges-on-at-and-t-time-warner-case).
Aya Kantorovich, Co-CEO of August Digital, breaks down Bitcoin’s surge, crypto ETFs, institutional investment trends, and the future of safer crypto access.
Most members of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key interest rate this year, minutes from last month’s meeting showed.
Sinead O’Sullivan breaks down Taylor Swift’s genius marketing for The Life of a Showgirl, which just set the record for most albums sold in a single week.
Markets are emerging from a turbulent Q3. Horizon’s Mike Dickson shares insights on interest rates, small caps, and where investors should look in Q4 and beyond
Bambu Ventures's Kyle Pretsch dives into Lemonaid’s $10M buyout, down from 23andMe’s $400M price tag, and what’s next after Chrome Co.’s dramatic pivot.
Former Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers learned all about technology’s volatile highs and lows as a veteran of the internet’s early boom days during the late 1990s and the ensuing meltdown that followed the mania. And now he is seeing potential signs of the cycle repeating with another transformative technology in artificial intelligence. Chambers is trying take some of the lessons he learned while riding a wave that turned Cisco into the world's most valuable company in 2000 before a crash hammered its stock price and apply them as an investor in AI startups. He recently discussed AI's promise and perils during an interview with The Associated Press.
Grove Collaborative’s CEO shares how the company is reinventing everyday goods with sustainability at the core and working toward a plastic-free future.
