U.S. DoJ Says Ruling Approving AT&T-Time Warner Merger Ignored ‘Fundamental Principles of Economics and Common Sense’

Juli Clover, reporting for Mac Rumors:

In the filing, the DoJ says the district court approved the merger after “erroneously ignoring fundamental principles of economics and common sense” and that it used a “deeply flawed assessment of the government’s evidence” to reach its decision…

The original ruling approving the merger, says the DoJ, ignored key documents from AT&T on the competitive harm of vertical mergers, limited expert economic testimony, and refused to close the courtroom to allow for testimony related to confidential business information. Further, the DoJ insists the original ruling ignored the economics of bargaining and did not consider corporate profit maximization.

Aren’t these the things you would review when looking at this merger? If they didn’t review the basic principles of economics, bargaining, or profit maximization, what on earth did they review?

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