AT&T’s $102 billion acquisition of Time Warner in 2019 will go down in M&A history as an exceptionally illadvised transaction, resulting in the loss of tens of billions of dollars of shareholder value. It should also go down in history as an exceptional ill-chosen target of antitrust intervention. The U.S. Department of Justice, with support from many academic and policy commentators, asserted with confidence that the vertical combination of these content and distribution powerhouses would result in an entity that could exercise market power to the detriment of competitors and consumers. The chorus of condemnation continued with vigor even after the DOJ’s loss in court and AT&T’s consummation of the transaction. With AT&T’s May 17 announcement that it will unwind the
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A major telecommunications company resolves to unwind a failed acquisition of a mass media and entertainment conglomerate, notwithstanding rulings greenlighting the merger at both District Court and Appeals Court level (AT&T / Time Warner)
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