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.
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and The Associated Press said Thursday that they've made a deal for the artificial intelligence company to license AP's archive of news stories.
The ongoing liquidation of parent company Bed Bath & Beyond has now officially affected buybuy BABY stores. A judge has approved the sale of the chain's intellectual property for $15.5 million.
Prices for airfare seem to be cooling off. The latest consumer price index showed prices dropped 8.1 percent in June from a month earlier, which is the biggest decline in a year.
Alexander Mashinsky, the former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network, has been arrested on federal fraud charges, including wire fraud, according to CNBC.
Whenever the United Auto Workers union begins negotiating a new contract with Detroit's three automakers, threats of a strike are typically heard on the floor of the old Chrysler transmission plant in Kokomo, Indiana.
