US: FCC’s Pai says DOJ will do the right thing with AT&T-TW

Federal Communications Commissio (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai says that he thinks the Justice Department (DOJ) will “do the right thing” when it comes to the proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger.

The DOJ is said to be pushing for a spin-off of either AT&T’s DirecTV or Time Warner’s Turner assets–which includes TBS, TNT and CNN–to approve the deal, while AT&T says it will see DOJ in court if that is the case.

In an appearance on Fox Business Network’s The Intelligence Report with Trish Regan Friday, November 10, Pai was asked about the reported DOJ demand for a CNN spin-off, Pai harkened back to his own days at Justice’s antitrust division.

“I can say that I think the professionals at the department are going to do the right thing according to law and the facts, and we’ll see where that takes us… I think the good news is there’s leadership of the Antitrust Division and on the career staff level that are going to review this very carefully. And I think they’ll reach the right results.”

The DOJ has ostensibly already been reviewing it for some time, since reports were it was close to a decision, which AT&T could force by signaling it plans to close the deal and see what happens. If it came to that the DOJ could seek to continue negotiating conditions, approve the deal as is, file suit to block it unless AT&T agrees to conditions or file suit concluding no conditions would bring it into compliance.

Full Content: Fox Business

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