Fears ebb of Trump blocking AT&T’s Time Warner deal

Donald Trump’s transition team has reassured AT&T that its acquisition of Time Warner will be scrutinised without prejudice despite the President-elect vowing to block the deal because it concentrated too much “power in the hands of too few.”

America’s largest telecommunications group by market value has been encouraged by Trump’s appointments to his transition team of two former competition officials with a hands-off record on antitrust enforcement, people close to the company said. President-elect Trump picked as his antitrust advisers Joshua Wright, a former federal trade commissioner with traditional Republican views on competition policy, and David Higbee, who worked in the business-friendly administration of George W Bush. After talking with the president-elect’s team, AT&T executives are confident that their deal has a good chance of passing regulatory scrutiny.