Justice Department Sues to Block Echo Star's DirecTV Acquisition

The U.S. Department of Justice, along with the Attorney Generals of 23 states, have brought an action to block the acquisition of DirecTV by Echo Star, reported to be a $26 billion deal. The reasons for the action center around keeping competition healthy, and in maintaining affordable prices for U. S. consumers in the television satellite market. According to Charles A. James, the Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, "This merger would give EchoStar control of the skies for the provision of video programming by satellite, leaving customers to suffer from the resulting reduction in competition....and would leave tens of millions of households with a reduction from three to two competitive choices."