AT&T’s Multibillion Dollar Purchase of Time Warner Might Fail for Not Involving FCC

Last year, AT&T proposed an acquisition of Time Warner under which AT&T will acquire Time Warner in a stock-and-cash transaction valued at $107.50 per share. The two parties had structured the deal so that no airwave licenses would be transferred, thus avoiding review by the FCC. However, by avoiding the public scrutiny of the FCC review process, AT&T…