Free Republic

Bloomberg, here's the link.

The Trump administration’s antitrust enforcers have fired a warning shot to AT&T and other companies hoping to pull off massive mergers. Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, is reportedly expected to take AT&T to court over its proposed $85 billion deal with Time Warner. Earlier this month, in an unusually public spat, it was reported that Department of Justice (DOJ) officials had demanded that AT&T sell off CNN’s parent company, Turner Broadcasting, from Time Warner if it wanted the deal approved. DOJ sources told The Hill and other outlets that AT&T had offered to follow through with divesting from...

AT&T, Time Warner deal closing now 'uncertain' AT&T CFO says timing of Time Warner deal closing 'now uncertain' 4 Hours Ago | 03:27 Time Warner shares declined nearly 7 percent midday Wednesday after AT&T's chief financial officer John Stephens said the timing of its merger deal close with the company is "now uncertain." The Financial Times later reported the Justice Department told AT&T and Time Warner would need to sell CNN, Time Warner's cable news network, as a condition in order for the acquisition to go through, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations. CNBC has confirmed the...

(Snip) Unfortunately, the power of these biased corporate media giants may only get more powerful under the pending mega-merger of AT&T and CNN’s parent company, Time Warner. President Trump said last year that this deal would put “too much concentration of power in the hands of too few” and promised to block it; yet there’s been dangerously little attention paid to a corporate marriage that would make two massive global media conglomerates even bigger.  Grassroots conservatives remain hopeful that President Trump remembers his campaign pledge to stop this deal. (Snip) These companies already have tremendous power and influence – and a combination...

EXCLUSIVE: There are rumblings at the highest executive levels that AT&T’s top executives are considering divesting some Time Warner assets — including news organization CNN and celebrity gossip site TMZ — after they merge. AT&T expects the Justice Department to approve its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, and for the deal to close, by year end. The telco has already named longtime exec John Stankey to be CEO of AT&T’s media properties. He’s leading the Time Warner Merger Integration Planning Team, working with Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. CBS has long had its eye on CNN. The broadcast company’s...

CNN boss says his reporters are ready to fight Donald Trump and will not let him 'bully and intimidate' them Jeff Zucker spoke about Trump's frequent attacks on CNN in a new interview 'My job is to remind everyone they need to stay focused doing their job', he said He added: 'He's trying to bully us, and we're not going to let him intimidate us. You can't lose confidence and let that change the way you conduct yourselves' CNN has been under fire this week for allegedly 'blackmailing' the person who created a meme that was lifted then tweeted out...

Following the revelation that CNN published fake news about the Trump administration and its alleged ties to Russia after an investigation by Breitbart News, the next head to roll at the embattled media company may be President Jeff Zucker. “AT&T will look to ‘neutralize’ CNN President Jeff Zucker after it buys Time Warner,” the New York Post reported on Wednesday. “The buzz from the telecommunications giant comes as CNN is being slammed for highly publicized missteps, according to three sources familiar with the thinking of AT&T brass,” the Post reported. In the wake of Breitbart’s investigation, CNN issued the following...

President Trump's ongoing feud with CNN could impact the news network's parent company Time Warner Inc's (TWX) $85 billion merger with AT&T Inc (T) , the New York Times reported. The Department of Justice is deliberating the merger, but Trump's public disdain for CNN is regarded as a "wild card" in the White House, an unnamed senior official said. It's unclear if Trump will attempt to influence the DOJ's review of the deal, but White House advisers have reportedly called it a "potential point of leverage." CNN President Jeff Zucker said the merger isn't something he considers journalistically or in...

There is an interesting deep story to the internet war on CNN. TimeWarner is the parent of CNN. But TimeWarner is much, much more than CNN. The corporate giant also owns HBO, TNT, the film studio Warner Bros, DC Comics, (10% of Hulu), Time Inc., AOL, Time Warner Cable, Warner Books and Warner Music Group--among various other media entities. The theme that ties them all together is that they are all businesses oriented toward the consumer. That is, the types of businesses that are vulnerable from many directions to the type of internet attack that has been launched against CNN....