Covering New GroundThe Justice Department rarely sues to block “vertical” mergers, or deals that combine two companies that operate at different stages of a supply chain, though it has raised concerns with some, including Comcast-NBC. The last fully litigated government case against a vertical merger came in 1979, a trucking industry challenge the government lost. The Justice Department won a 1972 case, involving Ford Motor Co.’s acquisition of a spark plug maker. The AT&T suit argues this vertical merger is “unusually problematic” because AT&T, which owns DirecTV, would control Time Warner content that could...

Source: Wall Street Journal November 21, 2017 10:30 UTC