*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 closed higher on Wall Street as earnings reporting season got underway and CEOs began to show how well or poorly they’re navigating high inflation and a slowing economy.
Here is a rundown of Cheddar News' top market stories of the day.
Warner Bros. Discovery said it's raising the monthly fee of HBO Max to $16 from $15.
Cassette sales shot up nearly 30% in 2022, with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. soundtrack as the top sale.
Barbara A. Friedberg, CEO at Wealth Media joined Cheddar News to discuss I-bonds, which are issued by the government, and how yields are adjusted.
Walmart is partnering with Salesforce to sell delivery technology to retailers.
Home Depot is changing its hourly pay policy after several pay-related lawsuits.
Subway could be gearing up for a sale that could value the company at $10 billion, according to reports.
Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, joined Cheddar News to discuss inflation trends. “I think with strong confidence that peak inflation is behind us, the trend is definitely one towards continued improvement but we've got a long way to go,” he said.
Nick Bodkins, CEO & founder of beverage collection Boisson, joined Cheddar News to discuss how the industry of non-alcoholic is gaining popularity. “This category is growing but it doesn't have that scale yet.”
