Update (5:40 pm ET): In a statement, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson vowed to fight the DOJ’s lawsuit. He said AT&T’s challenge is about preserving the rule of law against an overreaching DOJ anti-trust division. He also said that, while he doesn’t know for sure if the opposition is political in nature, he’s not surprised that the question of whether this is a political vendetta keep coming up.
He also vowed that AT&T wouldn’t divest Turner Broadcasting and CNN, calling that “a nonstarter.”
“When the government suddenly discards decades of legal precedent, businesses large and small are left with no legal guidepost.”
“We have no intention of proposing a solution outside of the bounds of what the rule of law would require.”
“There’s been a lot of reporting and speculation whether this is all about CNN. But frankly I dont know. But nobody should be surprise that the question keeps coming up because we’ve witnessed such an abrupt change in the application of anti-trust law here.”
“Any agreement that results in us forfeiting control of CNN, whether directly or indirectly, is a nonstarter. We have no intention of backing down from the government’s lawsuit.”
A lawyer for AT&T also noted that Trump has been “critical” of CNN. The president of course has repeatedly accused the network of being “fake news.”
This post was published at Zero Hedge on Nov 20, 2017.
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