AT&T completes Time Warner acquisition for $85 billion

AT&T has announced on Thursday that the company has successfully completed the acquisition of Time Warner for $85 billion one day earlier than expected.

The deal was expected to close on Friday earlier but the company has removed its final barrier on Tuesday when the federal judge gave the judgement that government has failed to prove that the merger of two companies would affect the consumers adversely.

AT&T was sued by the Department of Justice in October to stop the deal, they argued that when two companies will be combined they will have more power over competitors and the absence of fair competition is evident, the consumers would face higher prices and fewer choices left for them.

But the Department of Justice has failed to prove that the deal would hurt consumers in any way, a ruling was passed by the judge to clear AT&T from the case and let them resume the deal.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said, “We are going to bring an innovative approach to the entertainment and media industry for consumers, content developers, advertisers and distributors”.

On Thursday, the government department also said in a joint court filing that it will not ask the judge for a stay that can freeze the deal when it decides whether to appeal or not.

The government may not appeal for the case because the ruling passed by the judge is fair, also the government cannot prove any damage to the consumers amid this deal.

This acquisition/merger deal brings two major players in their own respective industries, one is the major player in telecom industry while other one holds the media and entertainment market, the deal is poised to shake up media world.

The company has already announced the possible deal with Fox and Comcast that already had an agreement with Walt Disney to sell its entertainment to them.

The deals are taking place at the time when traditional media companies and internet service providers see companies like Google, Facebook as an emerging threat to their business.