AT&T digs in with megadeal on the line

CEO vows to investors that it won’t sell the CNN unit

AT&T Inc’s $85.4 billion (Dh313.4 billion) bid for entertainment titan Time Warner is where few imagined it would end up — hurtling toward a make-or-break moment in Washington with a pro-business Republican administration that shows signs it may reject the deal.

Dallas-based AT&T is fighting an increasingly public battle with Justice Department antitrust officials, who have questioned whether the combined company would wield too much power.

After months of quiet talks with officials, Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson last week vowed to investors that it won’t sell the CNN unit that has drawn President Donald Trump’s ire.

Lobbyists for the telecommunications giant are increasing their outreach to Congress as it becomes clear the merger is meeting resistance, according to a people familiar with the company’s messaging. Among their talking points: the deal would marry companies that do different things, which normally doesn’t require as much scrutiny as transactions between direct competitors, the people said.

“We’re in a completely different phase” from a few weeks ago, said Blair Levin, a former Federal Communications Commission chief of staff. “Both sides need to simultaneously work toward a settlement, while at the same time laying the groundwork to win in court.”

AT&T sent several representatives to a congressional hearing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions Tuesday during which the merger came up, and some of those people went up on the dais to talk to lawmakers during the break. Sessions was asked during the House hearing whether the White House or anyone on behalf of the Trump administration had contacted him about the proposed merger and asked for the sale of Turner, the Time Warner unit that owns CNN, as a condition for approval.