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.
Stocks rose on Wall Street Monday after regulators pushed together two huge banks over the weekend and made other moves to build confidence in the struggling industry.
Two weeks earlier than expected, Howard Schultz stepped down as chief executive officer of Starbucks, and Laxman Narasimhan is taking over the global coffee chain.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is working with other central banks around the world to ensure dollars are available to stop any liquidity issues related to the ongoing crisis in the banking sector.
Blue check marks are coming to Instagram and Facebook. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday announced the expansion of a premium subscription service for $11.99 per month on the web and $14.99 on mobile. The service launched in Australia and New Zealand last month.
New York Community Bank has agreed to buy a significant chunk of the failed Signature Bank in a $2.7 billion deal, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said late Sunday.
Swiss authorities pushed for UBS to take over its smaller rival after a plan for Credit Suisse to borrow up to 50 billion francs ($54 billion) failed to reassure investors and the bank’s customers.
Companies continue to announce fresh rounds of layoffs and hiring freezes so far this year. Teresa Lusk, life coach, joined Cheddar News to discuss what you can do to protect your job.
