The US Ministry of Justice has opposed the merger of At & T and Time Warner for $ 85 billion. The department demands to sell CNN

The US Department of Justice threatened to block the Time Warner transaction at AT&T. The department believes that after the merger, the new company will be a monopolist in the market, so it requires a transaction to sell some assets. This is written by New York Times.

CNN or DirectV

As a condition for the merger of the merger, the Ministry of Justice demanded that Time Warner sell the Turner BroadCasting group, which, in particular, includes CNN. This happened during closed negotiations that took place on Wednesday - officially the Ministry of Justice denies such an offer.

The agency also unofficially offered companies another option - to sell the DirectV satellite television provider. His top managers of the companies were immediately called unrealistic, since DirectV, acquired by AT&T for $ 49 billion only a few years ago, was originally assumed as a key asset of the new company.

According to NYT, it is likely that in the case of an official requirement to sell Turner BroadCasting by the Ministry of Justice of Time Warner and AT&T will sue the department.

Criticism from Trump

The deal was repeatedly criticized by US President Donald Trump, who, in particular, stated that CNN deliberately negatively illuminates his activities. In one of his speeches, he emphasized that "my administration would not approve the deal, because it will concentrate too much power in the hands of a small number of people."

At the same time, at the official level, the White House emphasizes that Trump has nothing to do with the demand of the Ministry of Justice to sell CNN. The New York Times also notes that opponents of Trump from among the democrats of Congress are publicly called on blocking the transaction.

According to the publication, a few months ago, AT&T hired several influential lobbyists close to vice president Mike Pensa in order to get the transaction from the authorities. In addition, the company was one of Trump's inauguration sponsors.

The merger of Time Warner and AT&T became known in October 2016, the transaction amount amounted to $ 85.4 billion in Time Warner, in addition to CNN, includes HBO and Warner Bros. AT&T is also one of the largest telecom operators in the United States.