and so it's funny, we are fighting in the at&t-time warner case over whether or not there is the risk that at&t will keep turner content exclusive at a time when netflix entire model is exclusive content and it's just that they produce it themselves and they sell it themselves. ato's entire model inside of turner is produce their own content and sell direct to consumers. granted through some alternative sellers, but they're essentially handling the packaging and customer ownership function. dizzy has had to want to do the same thing. comcast is look at the same thing in buying skype overseas. so the world is moving to this concept of self contained or closed systems with captive studio production all the way through customer ownership. not message out all the way through physical pipes. that's a different question but all the way through customer ownership. that is a radically different model than what we have seen and at least in the u.s. market in the past in video. it's funny where fighting over this in at&t-time warner case when, in fact, the world is moving in that direction with

i think time warner -- time warner and at&t did a much better job than the government i think if you'reching on a deal spread, it's narrowing. so people believe that to be the case remember, the deal is not worth -- it's worth 101 and change because at&t is below the bottom of the collar and that sort of traded down on the crappy earnings of verizon and at&t all that being said, i do think it gets done i think they just presented a stronger case. you never know it's in front of a judge but more likely than not it closes. >> what do you make of the comments from the doj in whatever this was, somewhere midday where they basically said even if we lose, we could be thinking about other ways to tab this deal, different variations to get to the same place. >> trying to push them into some kind of settle, some kind of throwing out there either getting rid of dish or turner. and i don't think -- i don't think at&t-time warner, don't think they need to do that i think they're confident in their case. >> let's end here on disney and fox. deal or no deal, guy >> i say deal. and listen, i think com

expiring would affect the industry are exactly the same arguments they're having against at&t's merger with time warnere warner will somehow be able to keep their content hostage from other distributors, they're saying that's what at&t executives were talking about with connemcast a nbc. the head of the justice department was in court yesterday. i asked whether i should look into whether he was there on the day we were talking about comcast, he said no, i'm just coming here to support our team. the last time he was in court is when a comcast executive was testifying. a lot of people con nexting the dots there. >> brian, if we look at comparisons, anybody watching this wants to know what's it going to mean between access to content, prescribes i have to pay. there's the political backdrop in washington of all of this as there was in that merger as well which was about media getting too big and monopolistic. >> the obama administration did approve comcast nbc almost ten years ago but with the conditions hadas was describing. the world has changed quite a bit since then. you think about the rise of netfli

jump right into it of the biggest stories of all telecom providers that are watching with the at&t time warner trial which is starting to wrap up in the next week do you have any predictions of the outcome of that case and what that means for at&t? >> and a lot more than at&t but let me start with what i think is the general consensus that as the case has progressed that expectation that at&t will win has progressively risen. if it started like the 41 -- 60/40 than 40 than the broad consensus is 80/20 that they will win in a case. my own view is a bit more skeptical but i am closer to agnostic. the judge has asked a lot of questions that have shown him to be quite skeptical of the empirical part to quantify the consumer damages that would arise allegedly from vertical integration but i'm not sure that i equate that with the concept of whether or not vertical integration is higher prices you can quibble with still agree that the general theory that prices could rise. it is a legitimate argument. it is a relatively simple proposition the equilibrium price that arises from a negotiation is a func

it is funny that we are fighting over this and that at&t time warner case when the world is moving in that direction, with or without at&t and time warner. >> unfortunately, we are out of time. he is cofounder and senior , temp heart.yst -- tim hart. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme and public policy events in washington dc and around the country. c-span's breath to you by your cable or satellite provider. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. comey will be live on book tv on c-span2 in primetime. "a higherutobiography loyalty." he will discuss issues he faced including hisr including views on president trump. watch james kobe -- comey on prime time, monday at 7:00 eastern. we are live in michigan where president trump is holding a rally 40 miles north of detroit. be president has chosen to at this event tonight while members of the white house press corps gather in washington f

heart of this big question about the impact of a deal of in size, what would happen if at&t owned time warner'suse that power in the marketplace. essentially at&t is saying that it would not use that power in a harmful way, that the estimates of damage to consumers are overblown and overstated. and turner at one point offered to have arbitration in the future so that competitors could go ahead and resolve disputes over price. however the government taking a hard line here being very skipt cal of t skeptical claims, and they feel that they were burned years ago and so this is fought in court as opposed to settled in privately. >> so what do you expect today? >> we expect vince torres and the next few witnesses from at&t/time warner, so there will be a lot of what we call a hostile direct where it is not a wilt who is necessarily on the plaintiff, on the government side, so it should be a pretty contentious questioning for the next few days. >> sounds like it. okay. we'll look forward to you givings giving us an update tomorrow. thank you both very much. and thank you david gregory. >> and i've g

a big day for the potential at&t time warner deal. we were talking about this earlier happening in washington. >> after five weeks, closing arguments to today in at&t's acquisition of time warner. so far the case has shown the difficulty of the justice department challenging the merger involving companies that are direct competitors. the ruling could take several weeks. >> bob dylan the latest celebrity trying to make her mark in the liquor. >> this one seems a little different in my opinion. bob dylan may have said about alcohol but now it's going to be making it. it will be caught having doors spirit which is named for his iconic 1973 song knocking on heavens door. will manufacture burping double-barreled whiskey. about this new project, dillon said he don't always find inspiration. sometimes it finds he appeared with it's a great collection of american whiskey they would each tell a story. dylan signature will be on the back of the label but don't expect him to be the face of the brand. drain tube dog still in business mogul, never

. >>> the at&t time warner trial is set to resume today. is suing to block the purchase of time werner which owns cnn. let's bring in media reporter. >> this could be the week that the government wraps up their case in this trial. we will hear from at&t and time warner's side. we have heard from more than a dozen witnesses from the government from both at&t and time warner executives and rival cable companies. the key witness we have not heard from yet is an economist who did a study for the government where he said that if this merger goes through cable consumers would see an increase in their cable bills something like 45 cents per month which translates into hundreds of millions of dollars across the country. they are saying this merger would cause prices to go up, be anticompetitive. at&t and time warner say this is necessary to try to compete with new companies entering the content market and they say prices would not necessarily go up and they are countering that pretty heavily by doubting the methods. this week we could see the end o

or is better for the consumer so they might be less tough on that deal than they are on the at&t time warnerr. i'm getting this from doj officials. they are leaning towards appealing the case if they lose this litigation to bring it up. is not a done deal yet. they think this deal is really bad they despise big vertical mergers that merge massive distribution and what they can sitter other content. i don't think there to let this window. just to be clear your sources are telling you that they would be much more intense. two stories here. it's like turning the philosophy of antitrust on its head. you packed the same kind of conscience together. they're taking the opposite. you think it's better for the consumer. charlie gasper arena were coming right back. ♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪ with tcalled audible.le app you can listen to the stories you love while doing the things you love, outside. binge better. audible. liz: this is why you need to watch brock samson. the next time our last guest was on march 14 he told you it's time to sell. h

we have a long day of testimony in the at&t time warner merger trial. victories next. we're on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, it's time to wake up to keurig. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. press brew. that's it. so rich. i love it. that's why you should be a keurig man! full-bodied. are you sure you're describing the coffee and not me? if you have moderate to severe or psoriatic arthritis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression

it will be more favorable toward at&t-time warner. maybe there will be some kind of settlement. t the government has asked in terms of settlement and what at&t-time warner has asked. the government wants them to at&t is keen to give up a maximum of 20%. -- companyother copy to keep an eye on, mxp. what are we likely to hear? agreed to extend the merger period and the refiling. market.cared the haslook at the way mxp traded. antitrust case, the -- could this be a political issue? probably. no one has a read on what is going on. there is going to be a lot of speculation in the next few weeks. is 60 days.n period end, nxp toward the will pay $2 billion and walk. julia: the white house press briefing is underway with sarah sanders. she is criticizing former fbi echoing james comey, previous deeds -- tweets from the president. you can watch the whole press conference if you want to on live go. scarlet: why female managers aren't -- are putting up better numbers but not getting more top jobs. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ scarlet: this is "bloomberg markets." it is now time for t

the economists warring over exactly what's going to happen if at&t is able to buy time warner. >> hadasjudge stopped the at&t/time warner counsel on cross, i'm trying to say this in layman's way, you're done with cross. a judge can do that but it's unusual and on redirect, which is, you know, the prosecutions choice to go back at onef their own witnesses after being crossed, this is redirect, no leadgquestions. so this was very tightly policed and it does give you a window that this judge is not joking around and seems to be going by the book which would suggest that the government has a little bit of a challenge on its hands because by the book, we haven't seen a case like this before. >> reporter: we haven't seen a case like this since the 1970s. he understands the magnitude of this case. he was even ad monishing a witness on trial yesterday for what he said was just not answering the questions directly. i've spoken to quite a few justice department officials including in the antitrust division and some of them have told me they think the government is in trouble. these are the people

. >> if they don't like the feds, at&t, time warner, there's no way that they should even look at this. but wireless is unique it's one of the few industries where consumers really feel pricing on one hand. almost everybody has a phone at this point but at the same time it's one of the few industries where it's nationally competitive these players have nationwide networks so, can we afford to go from four to three? i imagine we're going to hear a lot of different opinions on that. >> really spinning this as job creation, tens of thousands of jobs, also investigating here in u.s. infrastructure and really sort of playing to what we've heard under this trump administration about kind of making america great again and, of course, evoking china which you, john, have been covering at mobile world congress and this race between u.s. and china for 5g. >> they all seem like side arguments to me. is this transaction good for the consumer or is it not? i mean, is it good for the economy? is it good for 5g and inf infrastructu infrastructure certainly there's the sense that lots of different peop

rockefeller we're going to be hearing from a lot of at&t/time warner executives.sses will be from the defense. they'll be hostile direct questioning because they're not on the side of the justice department. we're going to get pretty contentious questioning today. it's going to be a lot of insider, what were you discussions, deliberations, before going into this merge are. the justice department is trying to prove that at&t, time warner executives will purposely use their content to gain leverage over their competitors. >> somehow you've made the covering of an antitrust case juicy and into a cliff-hanger. hadas, we'll look forward to your reporting tomorrow. >> thank you. >>> we're following a lot of news right now, let's get ride to it. >>> the president has directed that the department of defense to deploy the national guard to our southwest border. >> i'm frankly glad to see him stepping up. >> i think it's a necessary step. >> this is a political fix because he made a stupid campaign promise for a stupid border wall. >> i want to get out and bring our troops

hurt their case when he said he didn't think there would be any problems in negotiations if time warner and at&t come together. he think he'd still be able to get time warner content just fine. today we're also expected to see from -- but he previously was head of distribution for turner and so he was in charge of negotiating all of these deals with all of these other distributors. we should expect to hear from the government lawyers asking him how did you leverage having channels like cnn and tnt when you were negotiating with other distributors to air that content because the government lawyers are arguing that time warner and at&t would use this content sort of an unfair way when negotiating with distributors after the merger. >> brian, here's a business friendly republican president who is standing in the way of a merger that is gotten approval fairly easily, the implication being there's something personal going on here. you see the president's attacks on amazon, "the washington post" coverage of him, a possible factor in there. >> we have to picture a trial on two tracks. the actual trial

at&t ceo taking the stand defending the merger with time warner as the only way to keep pace with techng is that case? the latest in the battle next. >>> at&t resting its case now in a major antitrust trial calling their final witness. the justice department, remember, is suing to block the telecom giant's $85 billion purchase of time warner. time warner owns cnn. let's discuss with hadas gold and brian stelter. take us into the courtroom, the significance of the most recent testimony was? >> so yesterday was a big day. at&t ended on a really big note with the at&t ceo randall stephenson taking the stand. and he really brought in this sort of historical perspective of why at&t is trying to buy time warner. it's really to keep up with the times and be able to better compete with netflix, amazon and facebook who he said get these reams of user data. not only are they creating the content but also controlling the way people watch the content. stephenson spent a lot of the time talking directly to the judge. the judge is who decides the case. he called this an important moment for at&t. he

what we are seeing play out is the doj, the trump administration oppose the at&t/time warner merger. many people say it's because they don't like the coverage of cnn. we are seeing donald trump attack, bully amazon, an american company, drop their -- their stock prices are dropping, many people think because he doesn't like the way "the washington post" covers his administration. if you look at it in a vacuum, no problem. but we are not in a vacuum. we are in the midst of an administration that bullies and uses every arm and ability at their disposal to try to bully the media, silence the ones that cover them in a way they don't like. and reward the ones that curry favor with them. this is strategic by sinclair. they are being strategic and trying to be a teacher's pet for donald trump. joining fox >> -- that out of it. i know the president will support them for the way they are being attacked. this plays into the bigger narrative that works well with the people that support him. very well with the base. a lot of people will like this. i look at sinclair in general. does a company ha

. >> before we come back to that what about the at&t time warner merger or acquisition? >> i think it's a trying to reinvigorate the antitrust. that seems to be the position of the justice department. they seem to believe the combination of the vertical risk of that nature. i don't see that they have a particularly powerful or strong case. i don't follow that closely. but how the government has to improve but we'll see. i think it will have an impact on future mergers. it may be about yesterday's problem. it's interesting most online videos internet is moving more toward close platform than open. they read about the see other day. you're getting these ecosystems that are vertically apple are vertically amazon or google or facebook. they all drive toward these narrow channels. it's an interesting case. i often worry that government is addressing itself to yesterday's problem. >> to help us explorers kyle daily, deputy technology editor. >> i want to dive right back in to a peter started with which is facebook. you guys have pushed back pretty hard against the last fcc try

cheryl: a lot of reporters in the courtroom reporting on proceedings are saying at&t and time warner frankly in court. the case is very strong. adam: to point the doj was making his time warner was making a profit without at&t is another issue. cheryl: fascinating trial. facebook talking about them all the time now say they could be getting into the computer hardware business. adam: tracee carrasco joins us with more on that another headlines. >> facebook wants to build its own chip that could be used in devices and software and data centers. according to "the wall street journal." this is part of an effort to develop its own hardware so won't have to rely on chipmakers facebook is reportedly working on a few hardware projects which include connecting speakers in virtual reality had bats. adam: general motors will make some changes at the top. >> this came rather abruptly. general motors said it was replacing the head of cadillac. he will be replaced immediately by managing director of gm's canadian operations. the announcement comes ahead of the new luxury suv. gm hopes the changeabl

government has rested its case in the at&t-time warner antitrust trial, the companies now have a proposaley do not violate antitrust laws. the time warner ceo scheduled to take the stand today and the at&t ceo after that. joining us on the phone is the senior antitrust litigation analyst for bloomberg television. you know antitrust well, there is a piece in bloomberg saying that it looks like the government case is not doing well. , theiece of evidence spread has come down. it is not all the way down to where it was what has come weigh in during this trial. our audience can see this. >> yes, this probably has to do with what happened last week. what we saw with the primary part, the most important part to department of justice case was their expert economic witness. this was carl shapiro testified last week. it is up to him to establish how this merger will be anti-competitive. and result in price increases. they do not have a presumption they can walk and to try with as you normally would with a or some mortar, a merger between better -- horizontal merger, a merger between bettors. and r

time warner's case? >> we have seen the first of the rebuttal witnesses last week after took the stand. this was a cpa, expert in synergies because at&te warner are claiming that by merging together they will bring cost savings to customers and could decrease prices across the industry. if they decrease their prices the rivals will have to do so as well. justice department is trying to bring up expert witnesses who will try to say that is not true. they will bring up a lot of economists and other accounts who say this is not how this will work and then we will see at&t bring a few others and then hopefully within a week we will have this case wrapped. >> i forgot to disclose that time warner is cnn's parent company. you have seen mergers like this before. how do you think the case is going? >> you were just talking about clinton in her seech saying that president trump wants to block the sale of cnn to at&t. that has been a subplot of this case for the past several months. it's mostly unspoken in court. it is spoken about outside court and clinton bringing up another reminder that many people especially liberals but a lot of conservat

there is every risk that the at&t time warner deal has been funded with $30 billion of debt likely toundone and put that $30 billion back into the market. rafvery few transactions in high-yield at the moment, so we can be nimble. jonathan: you talked earlier about how treasury can give you the risk on, risk averse protection. triple c's, who would've thought ? why would so be the case going forward? matt: you know, it is hard to talk about triple c's broadly as a group. they really are a market of individual stories. we have seen support in the energy space. nighi do think it is fascinating that energy stocks are unchanged on the year, despite the increase in oil prices, but you have seen a nice reaction in the credit markets, with a lot of those names that were iffy in 2016 doing quite well. you know, when we look at high-yield, the fundamentals are really very, very strong. the high-yield market today is actually smaller than it was three years ago. but you have to pick your spots. the one area we are a little cautious on is the longer, higher-quality high-yield. we think that area

the justice department suing to block time-warner from merging with at&t. ds argue the merger could used as a weapon against competitors.time-warner's ceo says the doj's argument is ridiculous. time-warner owns cnn, one of president trump's favorite targets. the doj says this is not political. the fox business network's edward lawrence with the news. he's live in washington. what evidence is the department of justice using apartment this merger? >> shep, the department of justice is using internal memos from at&t and time-warner to make their case on this. in fact, this morning they tried to get in a consultant report to at&t that said that the merged company would be able to leverage or have leverage about distributors if they bought a programmer. all of this boils down to the at&t-time-warner side saying that they need to compete with tech giants google, facebook and amazon. however, they say that those tech giants have an advantage over them. they have all of the information on their customers and they can target ads. but they also own all of the space th

. >>> closing arguments begin today in the at&t time warner trial. ve a huge impact on both companies and future mega deals. note that time warner is parent company of cnn. joining us now is cnn's senior media correspondent and host of reliable sources. we have other issues to get to, too, involving the media. what do we expect of closing arguments? >> this is really the last opportunity for boelth sidth si make their case for the judge and the public and the media who will be crowding the courtroom. what the government needs to do is really present in clear terms to the judge how they see the harm that they believe will come to consumers. they had an economist on who says cable bills will be going up upwards of 45 cents per month. you have to keep in mind they are trying to get it on a countrywide scale and how this will effect not only consumers but also industry. at&t will be trying to push back and say prices aren't going to go up. they will rely on the threat of the new social media and other internet platforms that are getting into content games

time warner is on the stand here today. time warner, the merged company would have at&t-directv and the time warner outlets of tnt, tbs, cnnay from the cable company shows and towards the direct digital products from amazon, hulu and netflix. that has the effect according to the ceo of raising cable subscription prices to make up for the lost ad revenue. the ceo says they tried to get into the digital market with hbo go but the giant tech companies got a double whammy on them. they are able to take the information directly from time warner and directly market it to the shows taking the ad revenue from them. attorneys trying to make the case it's the tech giants, google, amazon and netflix going to control the prices and set the flow of the way the shows go into the future, not the cable companies. the government is saying they're try to show it would increase prices on cable customers, control the flow of shows going forward and eliminate new entrants into the marketplace. the d.o.j. rested yesterday, neil? neil: now charlie gasparino on where this is going. charlie, i apologize for that. >> that's all right. neil: is it y

we're expecting to hear from time warner ceo who will take the stand. after him will be at&tcutive and tomorrow will hear from at&t ceo randall stevenson. the most high profile days of this trial, the courtroom is going to be completely packed. yesterday as i was leaving the courthouse i saw line sitters already lined up camping out side of the courthouse waiting for these next two days. they say that at&t needs time warner in order to better compete against these big companies like facebook, netflix and google who they say vertically integrated companies. they already own the platform and own the content you are watching. these movies on netflix or amazon, at&t says they need time warner's content to better compete. the justice department is going to try to push back on this and ask the ceos questions about how they might leverage this bigger company to pushdown their competitors, but it's going to be a big day these next few days really pivotal moments in this trial. >> thank you very much. we will check back in with you, of course. >>> so president trump tweeting that jame

calling its star witness and wrapping its case in chief in a marathon day of testimony at the at&t/time warneral. the justice department remember is suing to block the proposed mega merger. time warner, of course, owns cnn. joining you now is cnn politics reporter adaus gold. so this is the biggie. >> reporter: the star witness testified yesterday and was more than six hours of testimony and his main takeaway, he's done this big analysis, at the end of the day this entire trial is about how the government thinks this merger would effect the everyday consumer and how much they pay to watch their television and watch their shows, watch the news, watch sports and he said that by 2021, u.s. consumers would be paying something like $571 million more in just that year for cable because of this merger. he's done a lot of modeling and economic analysis and this guy's a very well respected professor from uc berkeley. he worked under the obama administration both in the white house and in the justice department as an economist. so he clearly knows his stuff and what at&t then tried to do on cross-examin

>> hi guys we are at the noon break here at the at&t/time warner anti-trust trial. time warner's ceo has just finished testifying over the last few hours his direct testimony in this case a couple major themes. number one, making the case for why time warner needs to partner with at&t, basically because it's a whole new ball game in terms of video distribution, primarily because of major internet players and changing customer habits as far as how they receive and want to pay for video. but to the heart of the case, the government contends that post merger, basically a turner/time warner combination would have more leverage in terms of negotiations where it would cost them less to go ahead with a blackout during negotiations than it did before the the merger the ceo absolutely refuted all of that saying, no, i don't agree. if our channels are not on, we lose a lot of money. hundreds of millions of dollars. and we never really get that money back it creates a whole new series of risk that we don't want to have. another area of contention, the notion again put forward b

one of the conditions that time warner and at&t have offered is, they have said to distributors, if weer programming, we won't go dark on you. we won't pull time warner programming during a arbitration processn -- during an arbitration process. that should address any fears you have of losing that content. plenty of distributors have criticized that, nonetheless, because it doesn't include hbo, for example. there is some question whether the judge might want to tweak that or suggest ways to tweak that. or he could just let the deal go through as is. i think we should just because because wecautious do not know what the judge is going to do and we won't know for probably a couple months. emily: all right. bloomberg's david mclaughlin. thank you so much for keeping us updated. the nba's new professional video game has signed a multiyear broadcast contract with amazon's twitch. the deal allows them to stream almost 200 games, including tournaments, playoffs, and finals. twitch will have exclusive broadcast rights to the 2018 season. the nba 2k league is a joint venture with take two inter

t. time warner merger which is opposed by the us government on antitrust grounds the department of justice has rested their case then officials from time warner have told their side of the story to hear discussed as someone who's been right there in the courtroom andre barlow of the law firm doyle barlow and mazhar andre thank you for being with us we sure appreciate you were so helpful west i mean we are pressured if you coming back so the argument that the companies were making is that this merger getting bigger will actually result in decreased cost for television and related internet sure. and more innovation to make an effective case in your view well i believe they did they did make an effective case i mean they closed they rested yesterday and randall stevens came in and he told the story c.e.o. yes c.e.o. he came in and he explained that. is is a business that knows how to reinvent itself it's gone from wireline to wireless it's gone from one g. to four g. you know we've gone from flip phones to video streaming on mobile devices and now we're getting ready to go into five g. they d

what we see is price volatility of the shares of time warner the justice department concluded its closing arguments. the court is in recess right now where at&tnd time warmer will make their their argument. we are getting some words about the closing arguments that the doj is making. >>> they' there should be some structural remedies that are put into place at&t should be allowed to buy portions or parts of time warner this may be a bit of a concession perhaps by the justice department in case things don't go their way. in this case here, that's what the justice department is saying again, we are waiting until 2:00 this afternoon where at&t and time warner will make their closing arguments. that's the reason that you will see the price volatility of time warner >> if the deal is not rejected out right by the court then the doj will be in favor of other stru structural remedies. >> okay. correct. that's the reason you are seeing the particular headlines coming out of the courtrooms and that's what's driving shares. >> thank you, dom chu. let's bring in our own david faber and beverly hills. first, we got to get your reaction on this which is t

at&t-time warner deal is now in an antitrust trial.ping up their closing arguments today. that is what we call a vertical deal, which means when two companies that don't compete against each other want to merge. there you have the distributor wanting to buy the content producer. that is a very different analysis than what you have in a potential deal but -- deal between sprint and t-mobile which is where you have two competitors compete with each other now, who would go away and become one company. they triedeminder, to do this deal in 2014. the justice department said no. they are really going to have to come up with a different argument. shery: i think this is the third time in the last four years they are trying this again. thank you so much for that. bloomberg, sara ford from washington. , and note --uffle coming up, cabinet shuffle. theresa may is facing a personnel crisis p one that could have major implications for brexit negotiations we will head to london next. this is bloomberg. ♪ omberg. ♪ ♪ shery: this is "bloomberg markets

t. time warner merger which is opposed by the u.s. government on antitrust grounds the department of justice has rested their case then officials from a t.n.t. and time warner have told their side of the story too and here to discuss is someone who's been right there in the courtroom andre barlow of the law firm doyle barlow and mazhar andre thank you for being with us we sure appreciate you were so helpful last time and we are pretty should have you coming back so the argument that the companies were making is that this merger getting bigger will actually result in decreased cost for television and related internet services and more innovation did they make an effective case in your view well i believe they did they did make an effective case i mean they they closed they rested yesterday and randall stevens came in and he told the story he didn't see c.e.o. yes c.e.o. he came in and he explained that he is is a business that knows how to reinvent itself it's gone from wireline to wireless it's gone from one g. to four g. you know we'v

were talking about the department of justice or time warner and at&t. from inside the courtroom coming next. the closing arguments are finally finished in the at&t time warner trial. he will announce a ruling on june 12 and the court is adjourned until then. here's what the latest. is edward lawrence. good afternoon. the judge now has the case. they had finished their closing arguments but the judge in this case has to wait a number of different things with the government estate out. the key competitors out of the area and control the flow going forward. the government also says this company would be so large it would bring the prices on consumers because there be reduced to competition in this. the government did say they only had to show a reasonable harm there is a june 21 deadline. or drop it altogether. that judge giving us some leeway before that. it has been going on now for seven weeks now. either side could actually appeal whatever ruling comes forward. on the brink of a historic victory with north korea. can at that negotiator and chief capital

time warner's ceo taking the stand, his testimony coming one day after government attorneys rested their case in the lawsuit to block at&t'swarner. the two companies argue that the merger is necessary to compete with internet giants. we're joined now from outside the courthouse. what did he have to say on the stand today? >> reporter: today is probably one of the most high profile days of the case. time warner took the stand to show the judge they need this merger in order to survive honestly. he said with companies like netflix and amazon and facebook getting into the content business, starting to create the shows that people watch in addition to the platform on which they watch those shows, he said they can't compete and they need to get with at&t to get their hands on some of the data from the consumers and without it they won't be able to survive in the future. he called the government's argument ridiculous. the government is arguing at&t will use turner content like cnn in sort of an unfair way in their negotiations with other cable distributors, as a way to get more prices out of it because they think at&t will try t

trial of the century resumed today with the main event, the big player, time warner ceo jeff bewkes taking the witness stand at the at&twarner merger case. bewkes saying he needs the at&t deal to go through in order to compete with netflix and hulu and amazon prime. bewkes added not only are the digital platforms ticking away subscribers from traditional pay tv distributors, taking a bite out of the advertising revenue dollars. this is a huge story. charlie gasparino was here on a story about billionaire investor stevie cohen. bewkes took the stand today and said we need to do this, how can you fight it? >> two takeaways from today. the government themselves, they don't believe bewkes is the key witness they need to swing this in their favor, and when i say swing this in their favor, what i understand is that the government believes that right now it is losing this case, how do they know that? no one knows what's in the judge's mind, judge leon, based on the statements that leon made in the courtroom basically challenging the analysis of the star witnesses, expert witnesses as to the cost of what a combined time warner

justice apartment especially in this industry we already know the government wants to block the at&t time warner deal. it continues in washington this week. it wrapped up last week. the ceo of at&t. the government has been saying they would have the opportunity to raise prices. it's just this be an expert on synergy. the cost savings for this deal were not verifiable but then the reason there is fireworks. and then a guy sent a couple of youtube videos related to the case. i am resentful. i hate being locked into these things. what i don't like is that they really prevent you we are about to turn positive. we are now down to just 17 points. the dow has crossed the unchanged line. hundred 37 times. oh boy some facebook news. will get it to in a minute. . . ♪ liz: tell you facebook tried to hold on to the green but it could not face the swamp that came from double line capital chief investment officer jeffrey gun lap. look at facebook chart. at a conference called the sone conference, he got up on stage and said you know what? privacy issues will be a problem for facebook. in fact he said he would

. >> host: and i'm sure we'll come back to that, but before we do, what about the at&t/time warner merger acquisition? >> guest: yeah. i mean, i think it represents a justice department that's trying, seemingly trying to reinvigorate a doctrine that had been somewhat de-emphasized in antitrust; that is, the threats or dangers associated with vertical integration. that seems to be the, a position of the justice department. they seem to believe that that combination represents a vertical risk of that nature. i don't personally as an antitrust lawyer see that they have a particularly powerful or strong case. i don't follow it that closely, but i think there are some pretty serious questions about how the government could prove the harms necessary from the combination. but we'll all see. i think it'll have significant impact on future mergers and raise questions about existing ones. you know, interesting, it also may be about yesterday's problem. i think it's very interesting we're worrying about the vertical integration and the role of cnn. most online video platforms are closed and vertical

and i'm still convinced if the at&t/time warner deal goes, everything isn't going to be on the table.u think comcast says that essentially creates what we have right now at&t/time warner obviously you want more. >> comcast could go troo i to b -- try to buy fox at that point. there are a lot of things that could happen and if that deal is approved, there's going to be a sense that everybody's going to be in a race >> if they don't win in this vertical merger opportunity that regulators will no longer be as aggressive >> this is where track record might help comcast institutional investors, investors that care about cash flow trust that management team in cash we trust because we don't dilute you. they don't do deals that dilute you. if it's dilutive, it'll be off the mark for these guys. comcast has always coveted cash flow and i think that they may get a lower cost of capital because guys like me say they don't do dilutive deals now, they could break my heart and do that, but i don't think they're going to do that >> comcast shares are down by about 1% this morning. we have seen sky

. >>> in the anti-trust trial for at&t, time warner ceo says it is necessary to take on silicon valleythe fed is suing to block the merger. it is the only way to compete with google and facebook. unlike tv, tech has the tech to target ads. time warner would lose hundreds of millions of dollar if channels were blocked out. >>> amazon has 100 million prime members. that is what ceo jeff bezos wrote in a letter to shareholders. it is fewer than netflix, but larger than any other subscription service. it is not just for music and video. members bought 5 billion items on amazon last year. numbers are staggering. >> 14 years it has been around? why were they keeping it a secret? >> now we know. bezos letters are fascinating. >>> "early start" begins now with the north korean negotiations. >>> there's been nobody tougher on russia than president donald trump. >> president trump talking tough, but sources say he personally opposed his team's plan for a new round of kremlin sanctions. >>> long-time lawyer for the president warning him to watch out. fixer michael cohen could flip on him. >>> the

. >>> now to the latest in the legal battle over the at&t/time warner merger. led more witnesses as the justice department tried to block it. time warner owns cnn. hadas gold has been following this case. tell us more. >> reporter: these last few days have been the battle over the experts in this trial. at&t has brought up a few more experts to try to question the government's expert economist and he did an analysis that showed that the time warner and at&t merger would cause what he claimed would be a price increase for consumers in their cable bills month to month. at&t is not only trying to question the results of that analysis but how that economist reached the analysis, everything from the data he used and surveys he conducted. they're trying to bring doubt into the judge's mind into how these were conducted and how this data might not be completely sound. >> so how did it go over with the judge? >> reporter: the judge has been pretty circumspect in terms of giving any clue to his opinion. we have heard from him in the past few weeks questioning these onlin

these companies all miss, ebay, at&t, time warner.ioned, all the companies also gave a week guide .or the second quarter yields up there. at this -- finally, take a look at amazon. investors are looking for an adjustment earnings and almost $50 billion in revenue. that represents 40% year-over-year growth. seeill be interesting to how much expenses surge. >> facebook up by as much as 10%. rocky time.a this is helpful and felt like the big one. now people can go find it is not such a big deal. out.ll see how it plays even the concerning headline we will see how it plays out. >> is all a matter of your perspective. cosby swore at prosecutors after a jury convicted him of aggravated assault. he stood up interrupted after jurors left the courtroom. courthouse, has it turned a brief statement. think mr. is guilty of anything in the fight is not over. committee judiciary move to protect robert mueller's job. said heajority leader does not feel there is a need for the bill. we decided the best thing to do is to take up the matter and we are.

time inc is now owned by the koch brothers, at&t-time warner merger is now pending on them cnn, he's holding up merger and then there's local conservative millionaires coming in the new york market, in the la market buying media and shutting it down, so there's a real effort toward propaganda tv and ending access to information. the other point is that, you know, i think our media has gotten a lot better but -- he knows this full well, their job is to cover the stories coming out, so i will use an example the week that the nunes memo, the first time it came out, there was literally for monday through friday was all the media was covering, is it going to come out monday, is it coming out of tuesday, is trump -- so 80% of the media coverage was about this memo and that was the longest week at that point, 158 items and 20 of them are about the nunes memo which meant 138 of those stories which were startling stories probably 50 of them in normal times would be front page of any cover, had almost no coverage. next week it happens. they are i think to their best but they are missing a lot.

it is bigger than the at&t time warner deal.he owners of two mobile, telecom, not going to let it go without a good price. what could seal the deal? caroline: exactly that. price, or the issue of control. price point we could see even more money being asked for t-mobile. the u.s. in particular we have another 40% being asked by some analysts. premium is the only thing that really would allow deutsche telekom to give over one of its main revenue-winning assets. this would either come added the cost for the main controller of sprint, or they would have to decide that he would cede control. in 2017, they could not strike enough price or an agreement to give control to deutsche telekom, which owns t-mobile. it would have to be either some kind of give on either price or control. many analysts are saying you're likely to see control ceded. why? because of the debt power they have. this shows you the debt distribution on softbank. check out that number, particularly at the bottom. $125 billion is how much they have in debt. this could

the chief executive of time-warner defended his company's merger with at&t. tive spoke and boltstered this underdog's argument. they say at&t and time-warner must combine so they survive. they spoked about the power of silicone valley giants like netflix and apple. some agree this makes sense. netflix and amazon have a lot of cash to spend. netflix spends $8 billion on original content this year. amazon about $5 billion. the justice department disagrees with the logic and think the deal would hurt consumers. both time-warner and at&t say it would not happen that way and it's unusual for the federal government to step in and block a merger of companies that don't directly compete with one another. they suggested that the justice department was swayed to block the deal by presidential colticks. president trump said the deal should be denied and bashed cnn for coverage of his administration. the justice department denies political interference. investigators are watching this trial closely for clues as to how the division will shape the entertainment landscape. >

time warner. but what is the difference in this kind of consolidation,? >> the differences you ever corporate megamerger with at&t and time warner. honestly, their competition issues -- obviously, there are, edition issues there. sinclair, whatd is really at stake here is local news and diversity and local news and strong financially supportive local news. in sinclair's past efforts to cut costs, to keep costs down, to consolidate when possible. the indication in this tribune media deal goes through, this could be a huge blow to local media, to the kind of journalism that even in the age of facebook and twitter and google, a huge percentage of americans still rely on to get news about their communities. been trump has also tweeting feverishly about amazon and attacking amazon. apparently causing a sharp drop in its stock price. but this, too, has immediate anglgle. jeff bezos, the head of amazon, is the owner of "the washington post," which has he is in critical of. the president taking stands on media companies that are critical of him. could you comment on that as well? >> it is frightening. it is disturbing. i