a federal judge is expected to rule on the governments effort to block atts merger with time warner creditbrandon thibodeaux for the new york timesjune 10 2018disneys offer to buy 21st century fox cvss bid for aetna tmobiles proposed merger with sprintthe path for these blockbuster deals and others could be transformed in an instant on tuesday when a federal judge is expected to issue his opinion on the governments effort to block atts merger with time warner it is one of the most influential antitrust cases in decades enthralling hollywood silicon valley and madison avenueif the merger is blocked some executives are likely to slim down their deal aspirations if the deal ends up going through expect a cascade of mergers and acquisitionsit could have a collateral effect on every other transaction said blair levin an adviser to new street research and a former chief of staff at the federal communications commissionthe justice department suit to stop att from buying time warner an 854 billion deal surprised investors and antitrust experts when it was filed late last year the two companies are in related industries but do not produce competing products one makes media content and the other distributes it deals between such companies called vertical mergers typically pass regulatory scrutiny with minimal roadblocksduring a sixweek trial at the united states district court in washington the justice department argued that the merger would hurt consumers because the combined company could have the power to raise prices and squash upstart rivals att and time warner said the deal was necessary to compete with fastgrowing streaming video giants like netflix and amazonthe case will be decided by richard j leon a plainspoken judge appointed by president george w bush he is expected to give a shortened version of his opinion in remarks around 4 pm on tuesday the full opinion released around the same time could be more than 200 pages and will be closely readalthough judge leon has given few clues about his thinking many analysts expect the companies to prevail because of the history of similar cases that were approved some have also said the government struggled in the trial to show that the deal would cause substantial harmbut the decision may not be clear cut the judge may allow the merger with several conditions such as restrictions on how att negotiates with rival cable companies that want to run time warner contentanything is possible and the reality is that any side that loses will be appealing said rich greenfield an analyst at btig researchthe appeal process could change the final outcome but since the companies are faced with a tight deadline later this month to close their merger shareholders may push time warner to bring att back to the negotiating table for more money if they have to wait out a prolonged legal battle some analysts sayimagecreditan rong xu for the new york timesabout 816 billion worth of transactions in the united states were announced this year through