AT&T, Time Warner survive 2nd U.S. bid to choke off merger

The federal government on Tuesday lost its second court challenge to AT&T’s $85.4 billion merger with Time Warner, a deal that has already begun to reshape much of the media industry.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected the government’s claim that a lower court had applied antitrust laws incorrectly in allowing the merger to proceed. Justice Department lawyers have argued that the combination of the two companies would reduce competition and hurt consumers.

“The government’s objections that the district court misunderstood and misapplied economic principles and clearly erred in rejecting the quantitative model are unpersuasive,” Judge Judith Rogers wrote on behalf of the panel.

The Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, could choose to appeal to the Supreme Court.

AT&T can now proceed with its plan to transform WarnerMedia into a streaming-video business in its version of the television industry’s go-to strategy. The company has said it would unveil several online video products by early next year, with the premium cable channel HBO anchoring a service that would feature films and TV shows from the Warner Bros. library. (HBO will continue to be available as a stand-alone service.)

That means popular movies like Wonder Woman and

Fiat Chrysler said the additional investments are subject to tax incentive packages it was working out with the city and state. The automaker would need about 200 acres of land for the project.

City officials signed a memorandum of understanding with the automaker, and they were ironing out a deal to assemble land for the project over the next 60 days.

If enough land is acquired and the tax incentives approved, construction is expected to start later this year. The first new vehicles could be in production by the end of 2020.

The automaker’s injection of money and jobs into the Motor City contrasts sharply with news from rival General Motors Co., which announced plans to shutter its DetroitHamtramck plant next year and plans to close four others in the U.S. and Canada.

But while Fiat Chrysler is expanding in Michigan, it said it would fire 1,371 of the 5,464 workers at its plant in Belvidere, Ill., or about a quarter of the work force there. The factory, where the company makes Jeep Cherokees, currently employs three crews of workers and runs two 10-hour shifts a day, six days a week. The job cuts take effect May 6, after which the plant will operate two eight-hour shifts, five days a week.

A Fiat Chrysler spokesman said the carmaker had no plans to transfer Belvidere workers to the Michigan plants where jobs are being added.

Detroit officials insisted they would help draw those 5,000 new jobs to the city without displacing any residents. In the early 1980s, thousands of people were relocated and a black and Polish neighborhood known as Poletown was razed for what became GM’s DetroitHamtramck plant.

Company officials said SUVs remain in demand, with strong sales and growth potential in domestic and overseas markets. The company’s chief financial officer told investors in June that trucks and SUVs would account for 80 percent of revenue by 2022.

Union leaders praised the announcement.

“It is especially exciting because these are good union jobs that have been achieved through collective bargaining,” United Auto Workers Vice President Cindy Estrada said in a statement. “We now look forward to working with the city and other community leaders on a community benefits agreement that reimagines our city and empowers our citizens to create sustainable communities with long-term viability.”

Detroit’s history has long been intertwined with the U.S. auto industry, with its attendant peaks and valleys.

Historically, Detroit’s job losses have been reflected in its plummeting population. About 1.8 million people lived in Detroit in the 1950s, and Detroit was the nation’s fourthbiggest city in 1960. By 2016, it would rank 21st as tens of thousands from the middle class fled to the suburbs. More whites moved away after a riot in 1967. The black middle class made a similar exodus in the next decade.

About the same time, the car plants that provided jobs and helped keep the city running were hiring fewer people. Around 1970, Detroit’s unemployment rate was just over 7 percent. It reached 25 percent by 1990. In 2009, the unemployment rate was close to 29 percent.

Today, Detroit has fewer than 700,000 residents. But the city’s unemployment rate last fall was down to about 8 percent.