The Justice Department Will Appeal AT&T-Time Warner Deal
*By Alisha Haridasani*
The Justice Department will appeal the $85 billion AT&T-Time Warner mega-merger a month after a federal judge gave it his blessing.
That's according to court papers reportedly filed on Thursday, which challenge Judge Richard Leon's ruling that the government did not sufficiently prove a deal would hurt competition in the industry.
At the time, Leon also tried to dissuade the DoJ from filing an appeal.
“A stay pending appeal would be a manifestly unjust outcome in this case,” wrote Judge Richard Leon. “I do not believe that the government has a likelihood of success on the merits of an appeal.”
Since receiving the green light, AT&T completed its acquisition of Time Warner and created a new company called WarnerMedia, which started offering skinny bundles for consumers leveraging on content from CNN, TBS, and TNT.
But while the companies promised the deal would not raise prices for consumers, AT&T earlier this month hiked the monthly rate for most of its DirecTV Now video streaming plans. Amazon Studios' former head of strategy Matthew Ball [pointed out](https://twitter.com/ballmatthew/status/1017507315266785280) that may have been a bad move.
AT&T shares fell by more than 1 percent on the news in after hours trading.
United Airlines says that it will start boarding passengers in economy class with window seats first starting next week, a move that will speed up boarding times for flights.
The new Pixel 8 smartphone released this week by Google includes an AI photo editing software that will allow users to change the expression of a person in pictures.
If you have some older comic books stashed away in your attic, basement or closet, make sure to check their condition as they could be traded for serious cash. Cheddar News' Michelle Castillo at New Yor Comic Con spoke with Chris D'Lando, event manager with NYCC for Reedpop; Andy Mourat, co-founder and president of MetaZoo; and Julian Montoya, senior vice president of The Noble Collection, to get their thoughts.
Eliott Wellenbach, vice president and institutional ETF strategist with Direxion, joined Cheddar News to explain how investors are bracing for interest rate hikes after last week's inflation report and ahead of the Fed's upcoming meeting. Wellenbach also discussed how traders are taking advantage of volatility as earnings season continues and amid geopolitical conflicts.
