Today, AT&T and Discovery Inc. announced a $43 billion deal to merge WarnerMedia with Discovery. Under the deal, AT&T will spin off its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner to form a new company with Discovery. The new company will combine the media assets of WarnerMedia with Discovery. The announcement of the deal comes just three years after AT&T acquired Time Warner, which Common Cause opposed. Statement of Michael Copps, Former FCC Commissioner and Common Cause Special Adviser "The AT&T/Time Warner merger has proven to be as disastrous as many of us predicted. After three years, millions of dollars of debt, and waves of layoffs, the deal has not only failed the public interest test but has not made any business sense either. Now, AT&T is seeking a bailout from a merger that should have never been approved by spinning off WarnerMedia in a deal with Discovery. While the deal is being touted as good for 'scale,' it will undoubtedly cost worker jobs, billions more in company debt, and consumer harms.