A judge late Friday temporarily blocked a planned merger between media companies Nexstar and Tegna, scuttling plans blessed by President Donald Trump to create the nation’s largest television company.
In his 14-day temporary restraining order, Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley sided with DirecTV, Which was claimed in a lawsuit filed last week that of nexstar $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna This is an effort to “increase the prices charged to DIRECTV and other distributors”, cause mass layoffs, and reduce competition.
“Here, the Court agrees with Plaintiffs that Defendants’ consolidation efforts are exactly what it would take to divest TEGNA stations, eliminate competition, and make newsroom layoffs and shutdowns more difficult,” Nunley wrote in his Friday decision.
Eight states – New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia – Filed a lawsuit to stop the merger In a separate filing the same day from DirecTV. But just hours later, the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger, circumventing long-standing limits on how much a broadcaster can reach a nationwide audience and angering some of the president’s conservative media allies.
The merger is stalled until April 7, when Nunley scheduled an in-person hearing to hear about the future of the potential acquisition. Until then, the two companies have been barred from further integration.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the stalled deal could draw the ire of the president, who wrote on true social It was said in February that the merger of the two companies would help against “the enemy, the fake news national TV networks”.
“Making good deals like Nexstar-Tegna will help eliminate fake news because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level,” Trump wrote.
