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Report: DOJ To Approve AT&T DirecTV Deal Without Conditions

The Department of Justice has concluded its review of AT&T's $49 billion planned acquisition of DirecTV and has told the company it will be approving the deal, anonymous sources tell Bloomberg. What's more, the DOJ will be approving the deal without affixing any conditions whatsoever to the deal, according to the source. The deal still needs to be approved by the FCC, which is expected to issue its own approval next week. Given FCC behavior of late, it seems very likely their approval will come with some strings attached.

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Consumer advocates have criticized AT&T's deal because it would technically eliminate a pay TV competitor from the television market.

However, the deal hasn't seen the kind of consumer or regulator backlash we saw with Comcast's doomed acquisition of Time Warner Cable, in part because Comcast's ownership of NBC created significantly larger vertical integration issues. The deal also benefited from the fact that Comcast's deal got the lion's share of media attention.

AT&T has been promising regulators that if the deal is approved they will expand broadband service to an additional two million households, though if similar AT&T promises from mergers past are any indication, that may or may not mean all that much.

Most recommended from 17 comments



karlmarx
join:2006-09-18
Moscow, ID

4 recommendations

karlmarx

Member

Of course AT&T will lie

AT&T will promise the sky and the moon to get the deal. It's in their DNA to lie. The reason is it will increase their profits, and if LYING is what it takes to increase profits, they will lie. I'm a bit surprised the lies are not even bigger than what they are saying. I was expecting AT&T to promise Gigapower to over 50 million homes within 2 years if they approved the acquisition. We all know it's going to be a lie, but why should anyone complain. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, well, every other time after that (and there are too many to count), shame on me. We expect lies from AT&T, we accept that, and we approve of the takeover. Higher prices, worse service, less competition, and more lies.. We should be proud, we've got the best politicians money can buy to support this. It's time to stop believing we live in a democracy, and realize that the only ones the government truly supports are the fat cats and megacorps.
Martijn0
join:2015-06-26
Parrottsville, TN

3 recommendations

Martijn0

Member

The reason I chose Dish

So frustrating, we have no wired broadband options being in AT&T "service" area, not even DSL, with their wired network physically falling apart.

This only left 2 options for TV service and now there is only 1real option left unless I buy it from the company thats been tricking our community for the past decade.

But yippy, we can bundle, wooohoooo, limited wireless data, spotty call signal and satellite TV all on one trickery trick bundle.

Rethink possible....!!!