Justice Department to appeal Time Warner-AT&T merger

Time Warner AT&T merger.
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Department of Justice said Thursday that it would move to appeal the approval of a massive merger between Time Warner and AT&T, CNBC reports. The $85.4 billion deal was approved by a federal judge in June, despite the DOJ's protest at the time that the merger would render the TV industry "less competitive and less innovative."

The DOJ's decision to appeal the approval was revealed in a court filing Thursday. In approving the deal last month, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon determined that the government had not sufficiently showed that the joining would reduce competition in the TV market, The New York Times explains, but acknowledged that an appeal would be "fair game."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.