U.S. Said to Seek Sale of CNN or DirecTV in AT&T-Time Warner Deal.

[elleng]

Source: NYT

The Justice Department has called on AT&T and Time Warner to sell Turner Broadcasting, the group of cable channels that includes CNN, as a potential requirement for approving the companies’ pending $85.4 billion deal, people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.

The other potential way the merger could win approval would be for AT&T to sell its DirecTV division, two of these people added.

The demands set up a potential battle over the fate of the long-in-the-works deal that would create a new colossus straddling the worlds of media and telecommunications at a time when upstarts like Netflix are disrupting traditional players in both industries.

As originally envisioned, combining AT&T and Time Warner would yield a giant company offering wireless and broadband internet service, DirecTV, the Warner Brothers movie studio and cable channels like HBO and CNN.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/business/dealbook/att-time-warner.html?

[Cattledog]

1. Ted Turner should buy back CNN.

[Scoopster]

2. Something doesn't smell right here.

Was just talking about this with some friends on another site. This move by DOJ makes no sense, because this Administration is so in bed with corporate interests that it would NEVER stand in the way of a massive merger like this.

I feel like this is setting up some unnamed company or group to buy up CNN.

[HAB911]

3. Trump has a massive hardon for CNN

[Cattledog]

4. Murdoch has long wanted to buy CNN.

He has tried and failed before.

[beaglelover]

9. He can't own both CNN And Fox News. A few years ago when the news came out that Fox

had tried to buy Time Warner, it said that Fox would either not include CNN as part of the deal or immediately sell CNN once the merger consummated.

[sandensea]

5. Your inner Hercule Poirot is strong, mon ami.

Authoritarian governments (i.e. not outright dictatorships) elsewhere have recently been dealing with critical media outlets in precisely this way: by using corrupt judges to force them to sell.

And the lucky buyer is always a government crony.

This effectively silences a critical voice, while allowing said government to claim they still respect press freedom (a "look ma, no hands" approach to censorship, if you will).

Sounds like Cheeto finally learned something from Uncle Vlad.

[pandr32]

6. There are many people in the DOJ

...and several divisions. Besides, the Deputy Attorney General gets everything before Sessions does, and Sessions might be a little busy right now with his lawyers.

[pandr32]

7. I would like to think the break-up of the mega-merger is for the right reasons

[cstanleytech]

8. Might be designed to weaken CNN as without a powerful owner with deep pockets like fox news has

they could end up folding during one of the leaner times.

[dembotoz]

11. Don't see attached getting rid of direct tv

Huge part of their internet platform