No one should be surprised by the Justice Department’s attempt to block AT&T’s $85 billion bid to acquire Time Warner. Neither economic theory nor recent experience suggests there is anything novel about the antitrust theory underlying the government’s position. If one company exerts significant control over the means of accessing a particular market, and acquires another company that owns the stuff that goes over or through that distribution system, there is a real danger that independent producers of the same stuff—in...

Source: Wall Street Journal November 27, 2017 22:52 UTC