A lawyer for AT&T Inc. sparred with the government’s star witness in the U.S. lawsuit to block the takeover of Time Warner Inc., questioning a key prediction that the deal would give it unfair leverage over pay-TV rivals seeking Time Warner’s programming.
Carl Shapiro, University of California at Berkeley professor, testified Wednesday in federal court in Washington that prices would ultimately go up for consumers if the $85 billion merger goes through, with AT&T’s DirecTV benefiting from pressure placed on rival distributors.
