AT&T's $85-bn bid for Time Warner hangs in limbo

This is the most significant business deal before the Trump administration

At the Department of Justice, staff members in the antitrust office have been doggedly investigating AT&T’s blockbuster $85.4 billion bid for Time Warner.

They have deposed the executives of both companies; questioned several media, telecommunications and technology rivals; and demanded thousands of pages of confidential documents from scores of businesses to discern if the deal would violate competition laws — and thus if it should go ahead at all. But eight months into the review, the small army of career antitrust officials is marching toward a great unknown.

For one thing, the Justice Department officials still don’t have a boss who will