The second biggest mobile carrier of the United States AT&T finally won the approval in a U.S. court to acquire the country's well-known entertainment giant: Time Warner Inc. The judgment came on Tuesday, in one of the revolutionary antitrust cases.
The decision was given by Judge Richard Leon, who himself addressed it as one of the revolutionary antitrust cases in the history of the nation. According to MarketWatch, while analyzing this deal, Gene Kimmelman, former chief counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division said: "This opens the floodgates for consolidation among the largest entertainment and transmission companies."
Experts claimed that this acquisition will act as the pathfinder to many forthcoming tie-ups and merger between the top players of media, technology and telecommunication industries. Leon gave his judgment after a prolonged and close observation over the claims of the Justice Department that this acquisition will immensely harm the common consumers of the U.S.
Makan Delrahim, chief of the Justice Department's antitrust division, then stated that AT&T's taking over of Times Warner "would greatly harm American consumers. It would mean higher monthly television bills and fewer of the new, emerging innovative options that consumers are beginning to enjoy."
However, the final verdict came in favor of AT&T, as the court approved the $85.4 billion worth merger of the former and Time Warner Inc. As per Cnet, this deal will bring the expensive movie franchises like Harry Potter & Superman and one of the most liked entertainment sagas: Game of Thrones. Also, AT&T will now take over the control of the famous TV & entertainment studios such as HBO, CNN, and Warner Bros which were the trademarks of Time Warner Inc.
While some of the analyzers started considering this tie-up as a drastic step as they think that it will raise the burden of high-subscription packages over consumers' shoulder. AT&T general counsel David McAtee has had a completely different opinion to convey. He said that the company is pleased with the court's decision and will "begin to give consumers video entertainment that is more affordable, mobile, and innovative."
He also added that AT&T is looking forward to completing the merger formalities with Time Warner Inc. by June 20, 2018, so that, the company can start to provide entertainment services as soon as possible. The court's green signal has cleared the roadmap of many newly proposed tie-ups of entertainment supremes. One of the most sought among these is Comcast's official $65 billion offer to acquire Fox entertainment. The deal is expected to be finalized soon.
