Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project today released the following statement in response to an announcement from AT&T that it will spin off WarnerMedia in a $43 billion deal.

“Judge Richard Leon granted this merger because he was confident that the AT&T-Time Warner deal would grant ‘considerable efficiencies.’ It didn’t. The combined entity raised prices, reduced choices, and put more than 41,000 people out of work. Now, it’s being undone because those vaunted ‘efficiencies’ were a mirage,” said Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Under-deterrence of big mergers and credulous judges like Judge Leon are at the root of our concentration crisis. It’s time judges reconsider their assumptions and recognize that mergers in concentrated markets rarely work out.”

To learn more, read “Courage to Learn: Media & Telecommunications” here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.