US: Closing arguments for DOJ/AT&T trial to come Monday

AT&T and US antitrust enforcers are set for their final face-off in court over the telecommunications giant’s planned takeover of Time Warner Inc. now that testimony in the merger trial ended.

The two sides will make closing arguments Monday, April 30, in Washington before US District Judge Richard Leon, who will decide whether to grant the Justice Department’s (DOJ) request to block AT&T’s nearly US$109 billion acquisition of Time Warner on antitrust grounds.

The DoJ on Thursday, April 26, finished questioning its final witness in the case, Professor Carl Shapiro, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, who reemphasized his earlier testimony that the deal will reduce competition.

Makan Delrahim, who heads the antitrust division that sued to stop the deal, sounded upbeat about the government’s prospects and said both sides “did a great job” presenting their cases.

“We’ll see what happens,” he told reporters outside the courtroom. “I would never bring a case I don’t think I can win.”

The DoJ claims the combination will raise prices for pay-TV subscribers across the country by hundreds of millions of dollars, an assertion that AT&T dismisses.

On Thursday, government lawyers tried to introduce filings AT&T and its DirecTV unit made with the Federal Communications Commission that they say support the theory that the phone company will gain leverage over pay-TV rivals by acquiring Time Warner.

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