AT&T’s Tab Awaiting Time Warner Takeover Hits $1.4 Billion

Even if a federal judge sides with AT&T in its fight to take over Time Warner for $85 billion, victory won’t have come cheap. AT&T spent $1.1 billion in 2017 on debt interest and fees tied to the proposed merger, plus $214 million on related integration costs. The first quarter added another $67 million of integration costs. Time Warner said it spent $279 million on merger costs in 2017 and another $146 million through March. Those figures don’t include the full cost of staffing the trial, which kicked off in March 2018 after the Justice Department sued late last year to block it, arguing the combination would hurt pay-TV competition.