U.S. DoJ Says Ruling Approving AT&T-Time Warner Merger Ignored 'Fundamental Principles of Economics and Common Sense'

[Solomani]

This deal would be blocked in pretty much any other developed country. It's just interesting that free market capitalist types don't seem to grasp the core fundamentals of Capitalism, which is competition. Monopolies and Super-Corporations go against the core principle of Capitalism.

Capitalism is an obsolete American ideal. What we have now is not capitalism. It's Corporatism. The US Government is in cahoots with the Mega-corporations, they scratch each other's backs. The Government enacts laws that favor the Corporations (over the consumers/citizens). The corporations spend their wealth and lobby money to keep their supporters in government in power. And the cycle perpetuates. The ordinary consumers/citizens can't do anything about it.

 

[ateslik]

Let’s face it, HBO is an empty vessel after they air the last Game of Thrones season.

I would agree if they weren’t planning several spin offs. I think whatever they do there will continue to do very well for them.

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/game-o...hrones-prequel-spin-off-show-cast-date-ideas/

 

[macduke]

I'm enjoying the $15/mo WatchTV app. In my household we're not big into TV like most Americans so it's a good economical choice. I hope this doesn't go away if they stop the merger. It would seem pretty unfair to green light a merger and then pull the rug out from under them when they're halfway merged. Has that ever happened before on this scale? Not saying AT&T doesn't deserve something unfair to happen to them because they are not a great company, but it still doesn't seem right to do that.

 

[BuffaloTF]

This deal would be blocked in pretty much any other developed country. It's just interesting that free market capitalist types don't seem to grasp the core fundamentals of Capitalism, which is competition. Monopolies and Super-Corporations go against the core principle of Capitalism.

Also, with the exception of America, every single developed country has government bodies looking out for their We the People. The success of this is why today, 19 of the top 20 economies on the planet are Big Gov types.

We can also break this down on a state level, as almost all of the bottom 20 states for GDP per capita, wealth per capita, home prices, incomes, quality of life, poverty, education etc are No Gov Red States. Whereas, the majority of the top 20 states for the above are Big Gov Blue States. Ironically, the biggest welfare recipient states in the Union are also No Gov Red states.

Free-market capitalism... the point of competition is to win-- to be the last man standing. This is what WalMart did to all the other *Marts. Free-market capitalism would see 1 player triumph in all industry. Regulated markets force competition, that's not free-market, it's the exact opposite.

This is not anti-competition in any manner. AT&T does not compete with Time Warner. This is vertical, all the way home. This is an old phone company, learning the lessons of history with phone services when it came to non-traditional deliveries and players -- where OTT phone providers (VOIP, Cable) came in and ate their lunch. Media content has its OTT moment right now, so they're getting ahead of it so as not to be cut out, again.

 

[davidg4781]

And government’s the expert at principles of economics and common sense?

 

[redhawk87]

I do not see much issue with TWC merging with AT&T personally. Chord cutting is the future. DirecTV Now and other OTT streaming service bundles, to me, are just a stepping stone to real chord cutting. People are moving away from live TV and onto on demand stuff. AT&T and other tv provider companies need a new revenue stream to stay relevant/replace their tv provider business. DirecTV, U-Verse, and DirecTV Now are all going to become irrelevant in the next 10 years. So, AT&T buying some cable tv channels does not really bother me as I do not use them anyways and it gives AT&T something to help offset their failing tv provider division. With Apple, Amazon, Hulu, Google, etc. getting into TV, it has saturated the 'tv channel' space. I feel there needs to be some consolidation or else cable tv channels will not be able to compete. The main issue I see with AT&T buying TWC is the consolidation of internet providers. AT&T and TWC used to be the only options where I live. I think 5G will change that landscape too as Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint will be able to add some competition in more markets.

 

[LizKat]

so much back and forth...

So much irony. The Time Warner - AOL merger was once called by Wall Street the worst corporate merger in the history of such affairs. TW successor Warner Media have apparently learned nothing and are ready to go again. Well at least this time I'm not around as a consultant to watch in-house colleagues' 401k funds take a stunning dive overnight. That was back in the day when companies could lock you in to keeping even vested holdings in company stock for extremely long periods of time. One hardly knew what to say to those poor dudes the morning after Wall Street read the news and said what? oh hell no, short the whole thing right now!!!!

I suppose that TW-AOL merger and the many ensuing and enduring class action lawsuits about the 401k plans had something to do with changes in the legality of such benefit plan antics by large corporations. And the so-called synergy of the merger had never materialized, in fact was undone two years later. But you'd think the institutional history of a place would lend a little gravitas to thoughts of engaging in a huge merger yet again. Oh I forgot. Institutional histories don't exist any more, the average time a shareholder owns anything is about 22 seconds now instead of 4 years, and sometimes it seems like the average endurance of a C-suite has moved in that direction as well.