AT & T And Time Warner Merger

While consumers prefer smaller companies for better prices, The AT&T and Time Warner merger should proceed because it makes financial sense for AT&T to do so, many mergers like this have occurred before this with little to no government interference, and It is not violating any of the antitrust laws. Large corporations and the government have been at odds ever since the days of U.S. Steel and Standard Oil . Monopolies and Oligopolies are harmful to the economy and consumers because they allow for companies to corner markets, artificially inflate prices, and keep operating and manufacturing costs detrimentally low. To prevent this, several anti-trust laws have been created. With the increased interconnectivity of today, various industries are

For example, the merger of Comcast and NBCUniversal . This one is similar because it is also a vertical merger between large companies in different industries of entertainment. Comcast Cable was a major cable company and NBC Universal was a major broadcasting company. In the early days of the merger there was also a lawsuit, U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Comcast Corp., et al . In this case, the government and the plaintiff states also invoked section 7 of the Clayton act for the suit. Section 7 of the Clayton Act is an antitrust law that prevents mergers and acquisitions that have the effect of lessening competition or creating monopolies . However, the case ended with a compromise in 2013 where Comcast can proceed with the merger if they actively fix the loss of competition that the government believes will occur once the merger is finalized . Even in the case scenario of Comcast and NBC Universal, the merger was still allowed to occur with limited governmental regulations. At worst, this is likely to occur for the AT&T and Time Warner merger. Similar expanding of markets have also occurred with no court cases such as Google’s streaming services of live-TV and the original productions of Amazon and Netflix

First, this merger makes sense from a financial standpoint for AT&T to want to spend additional revenue on a merger with Time Warner and why Time Warner would want to do the merger as well. Additionally, there are several examples such as the Comcast and NBCUniversal merger, in which the acquisitions and mergers of large corporations like AT&T could continue with little to no governmental scrutiny. Next, the merger will not violate any anti-trust laws. Finally, this merger would be good for consumers because of the new and varied services that the conglomeration of AT&T and Time Warner could provide for its customers. Of this merger, there is one thing people can be certain of. The merger of these two large service providers of broadcasting and content will irrevocably change how digital services work in the modern