The DOJ approved the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal in 2011 without requiring any major divestitures. It was a similar vertical merger involving a cable co

The DOJ approved the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal in 2011 without requiring any major divestitures. It was a similar vertical merger involving a cable company and a content producer. It hasn't resulted in NBC Universal content being restricted to Comcast or large increases in carriage fees charged to competitors which are the major potential issues the DOJ raises. I think the DOJ is going to have a tough row to hoe in court. The reason AT&T is purchasing Time Warner is to gain their content production capability. You don't see how forcing the sale of a major part of that would affect AT&T's reasons for even doing the merger? The issue with forcing the spin off of Turner isn't the believe that Turner including CNN would somehow no longer exist. It is the believe that it is being to done for political purposes to allow a journalistic outlet critical of the administration to be purchased by an organization friendly to it. This along with the FCC media ownership changes are despot 101, gain control of the media.