(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has only a remote chance of overturning AT&T Inc’s takeover of Time Warner, Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said on Friday, while warning the case could affect bidding for Twenty-First Century Fox Inc.
Shares of AT&T fell 1.9 percent to $31.61 in afternoon trading, after U.S. officials signaled they would appeal a federal judge’s approval last month of the acquisition of the media firm.
Speaking on CNBC, Stephenson said the original court decision was well reasoned and AT&T would continue to execute its plans.
“At the end of the day the law was on our side,” he said. “We think the likelihood of this thing being reversed or overturned is really remote.”
The $85.4 billion deal, first announced in October 2016, was opposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. AT&T was sued by the Justice Department on antitrust grounds, but won approval from a U.S. district court following a lengthy trial.
Credit rating agency Fitch said in a statement it believes the original decision will be upheld, but acknowledged the three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals could have a different view. Moody’s said in a statement AT&T’s credit ratings remain unchanged.
Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, recently defended the decision to file its initial lawsuit last year, saying it was the “largest telecommunications merger in history.”
“In AT&T-Time Warner, litigation was
