The Ministry of justice made a condition of the merger of AT&T and Time Warner the sale of CNN. This was stated by sources familiar with the transaction.
«The Ministry of justice has put forward the companies an ultimatum: sell Time Turnner Broadcasting, which includes CNN and TBS, TNT and Jettison DirecTV and then get the approval of the transaction in the amount of 85 billion dollars», — told Politico one of the sources. In his opinion, the real stumbling block – namely CNN, a channel that does not suit the President of Donald trump.
«The only reason is that Trump don’t like the way its activities are covered on CNN. It would be a «message» every news organization in the country: you see what happened to CNN, it will be the same with you,» continued the source.
Officials of the Ministry of justice later said that the companies offered to sell CNN, but the CEO of AT&T said that it has nothing to do with the truth.
«Throughout the process of discussing merger I was never going to sell CNN», he said.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, lawyers for AT&T and Time Warner are preparing for trial, if the DOJ eventually rejected the merger.
Note that Time Warner, the company, founded in 1990, owns the channel HBO, which produces the world famous series «Game of thrones», and Warner Bros.
