Pricing Information Ordered in Disney/Fox Dispute; Barclays Sees Integration Challenges
With AT&T seeking third-party pricing information from DOJ as part of the agency's court fight to block AT&T's buy of Time Warner, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington on Monday ordered Justice to get consent from nine third parties…
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to produce the pricing data for AT&T. The docket 17-2511 order (in Pacer) said the data was given to DOJ during prior deal investigations. The third parties are Altice, Comcast, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Disney, Fox, Viacom, Discovery and Scripps; the last two companies also are combining. In a note Tuesday, Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar said investor optimism about regulatory approval and smooth execution of the deal might be oversized, since New Disney's scale in sports could be subject to close scrutiny. The integration "is likely to be quite complicated" because of different company cultures and recent and expected Disney losses of some key management personnel, Venkateshwar said, adding the integration will be happening simultaneously with the launch of high-profile over-the-top products.