Antitrust Problem News Today

Democratic countries that value freedom and human dignity. this is an effort that would be ripe for this administration. they should be doing it. >> martha: that has been the clear message of these freedom fighters and activists here in the united states. they dont want that deal to ever to come together again. they see it as the antithesis of what the direction that the relationship needs to go in between the u.s. and iran. general jack keane, thank you. good to speak with you, sir. thank you. ...

Things. but, as kimberly said its not traditional antitrust problem in that they are hurting consumers in terms of prices. products are mostly free. consumers are the products. they collect data on people and they sell that. thats how it works. so there is a big consensus that something should be done but no con sen sus about what that should be. >> bret: 10 seconds. are we going to see legislation outs of congress? >> i think we are going to see a number of proposals that end up getting debated...

The antitrust division months before he won senate confirmation. he told bnn i dont see this as a major antitrust problem. two months after confirmed, the government filed suit, arguing content was so valuable they might threaten to charge higher subscription fees at&t pointing to political bias. >> i want to address the elephant in the room here. theres been a lot of reporting whether this is all about cnn. frankly, i dont know. but nobody should be surprised if the question keeps coming up. >>...

Major antitrust problem. >> dont see this as a major antitrust problem. its now his case. president trump that same month, october of 2016, says this is a deal we will not approve in my administration because its too much concentration of power in the hands of too few. how do you reconcile those two positions with where we are now? >> well, look, its very difficult to reconcile it, unless you look at politics. and so, that becomes the issue. that this is not actually about antitrust, its about t...

When you look at the man that leads the department of justice antitrust division, he was asked last fall about whether this seems problematic, this merger, and heres how he put it then. >> it shouldnt be. just the shear size of it and the fact that its media i think will get a lot of attention, however, i dont see this as a major antitrust problem. >> i dont see this as a major antitrust problem. a vertical merger like this has not been challenged by the department of justice in decades. what ch...

Call a vertical merger, a content with distribution, rather than two competitors merging. so, i anticipate that the fcc will have little, if any role, and it would be a pure antitrust. it shouldnt be, i think -- you know, just the sheer size of it and the fact that its media i think will get a lot of attention. however, i dont see this as a major antitrust problem. >> that, of course, was delrahim long before he was in charge of this case, working for the trump administration, but youll likely s...

>> the interview did owned a festive note with lavar ball telling chris to wish mr. trump a happy thanksgiving, christine. >> a huge legal struggle on the horizon after the justice department files suit to block at&ts proposed takeover of time warner, the parent company of cnn. the federal lawsuit marks an unusual challenge to this big $85 billion deal. >> the justice department argues the merger violates antitrust law because at&t would use its control of time warner programming to harm competi...

Previously hadnt suggested he would do that. take a listen. >> just the sheer size of it and fact that its media i think will get a lot of attention. however i dont see this as a major antitrust problem. >> so when did he change matt? >> good question. that was his position before he went to work for donald trump. after he completely took a different position. as you were asking before. in terms of the career people, who knows where this would have come out but their discussions i was told revol...

However, i dont see this as a major antitrust problem. >> so, brian, what changed do you think? it sounded like it was not a problem? >> yeah, thats the newly installed doj antitrust chief. back when this deal was announced, he was a lawyer and lobbyist outside the government. so he was asked for his view on this possible deal. and you heard him there say he doesnt think it was going to be a big antitrust matter. he now feels he has taken out of context and elsewhere in the interview he said the...

Reputation and trump has certainly ploetsed his promoted. but they say it could harkocoul consumers. at&t disagrees and so do lots of outside experts. they are baffled by this out of the blue opposition from the government. so there is speculation that this is really about trumps dislike of cnn. let me show you the other reason why suspicions are so high. this is the man now in charges of reviewing the deal at doj, him he speaking when the deal was announced last year saying he didnt see major a...