Elizabeth Winkler

As long as the big tech is the enemy, companies are pretty much free to buy, sell and trade assets to keep from falling behind. Judge Richard Leon said as much when he approved when he approved AT&T's acquisition of Time warner. He isn’t wrong that Silicon Valley giants pose real threats to media companies.

In the court case attempting to block AT&T's purchase of Time Warner, the Department of Justice is trying to prove that when you combine content assets like Time Warner’s programming with distribution assets like AT&T’s DirecTV, the company can force distributors to pay higher rates and favor its own operations over rivals. If the government’s argument succeeds, it will be bad news for a lot of media companies seeking to do deals. Comcast has particular reason to worry.

When US District Court Judge Richard Leon hears the U.S. government’s lawsuit to stop the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, he will be deciding not just one media deal but two. Not only can his decision allow one blockbuster merger, but it could also lead to the unwinding of a second. After President Donald Trump and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, the person who will most closely watch the case will be Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast. If Judge Leon approves the deal, Roberts will likely lob in another bid for the assets that 21st Century Fox agreed to sell to Disney.

For publishers, Facebook’s plans to shake-up its news feed may mean a dramatic change in traffic from the platform. The social media company has said its new algorithm will prioritize what it calls “meaningful social interactions”—posts, photos and videos that users share and discuss. Content directly from publishers won’t perform as well unless people engage with it.