The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
US antitrust enforcers are set to conclude their case against AT&T Inc.’s proposed takeover of Time Warner Inc. as their economic expert — a critical witness for the government — is scheduled to take the stand on Wednesday. Professor Carl Shapiro from the University of California at Berkeley will testify that AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner would raise costs for pay-TV consumers across the country by hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
That finding is the backbone of the Justice Department’s case that the merger of the two companies would be anti-competitive and should be blocked by a federal judge. AT&T disputes that prices will go up as a result of the deal. The company will put its own expert, Professor Dennis Carlton of the University of Chicago, on the witness stand on Thursday.
Shapiro’s testimony will mark the end of the evidence offered by the government against the $85 billion takeover, as the last fact witnesses testified.