The public wins a DOJ-AT&T court battle, no matter the result

[Commentary] The Justice Department (DOJ) just filed a lawsuit over AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner. For a number of reasons, I think this is a good thing. In fact, it could be a really good thing, and that is true regardless of who wins in the end. Here’s why:

Reason 1: The antitrust agencies and the courts have given businesses a pretty clear framework of how to think about mergers between direct competitors, but this is not true when it comes to vertical mergers.

Reason 2: An AT&T loss might actually be good for CNN.

Reason 3: A government loss might actually be good for the government.

Reason 4: Behavioral remedies don’t work.

Reason 5: Media mergers should get careful scrutiny.

[Allen Grunes spent more than a decade at the DOJ Antitrust Division and is the co-founder of The Konkurrenz Group in Washington, D.C.]