AT&T Says Discovery-WarnerMedia Antitrust Concerns “Unfounded”

AT&T’s deal to spin off WarnerMedia and merge it with Discovery, Inc. hit its first road bump this week but the company is assuring shareholders that all it is proceeding as planned, reported Fierce Video.

AT&T CEO John Stankey spoke today at a UBS investor conference and said that the regulatory process so far for his company’s $43 billion merger is going as expected.

“I feel good about the process, and I think as we get into first quarter, we’ll be able to demonstrate back to the market and to many of you the natural progress that you would see occur in a complex transaction like this [and] that will provide better visibility to ultimately when that close will be,” he said.

Stankey’s air of confidence about the deal clashed somewhat with a letter sent today to the U.S. Justice Department and signed by more than 30 members of Congress. The group urged an antitrust review of the proposed merger, which it said “threatens to enhance the market power of the combined firm and substantially lessen competition in the media and entertainment industry, harming both consumers and American workers.”

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