The mississippi runoff is being described as a fight within the gop between Establishment Republicans and the tea party. Quoting from the story the race has the feel of an alamo moment while the establishment has poured money in and outside groups raised money for mcdaniel. We will bring you the result and the Election Night speeches as they come in. First, todays hearing on the merger between at t and directv that would create a 48. 5 billion merger. The chair of the house subcommittee on antitrust law. Good morning. The hearing will come to morning. Without objection the chairs authorized to declare recess of the committee at any time. Now i recognize myself for my Opening Statement. We are hear today to examine the proposed merger between at t and directv. As i reminded witnesses during the recent comcasttime warner hearing, todays procedure will m not determine if the merger is approved but this form will allow us to discuss the potential of the motherinleme allow us to ask questio
At t brings and we think directv has talent as well. I think worldclass enbenefit programs for employees will be a good thing. Thank you, sir. All right. Mr. Stephenson and mr. White, id like to ask you both to talk a little about the companys commitment to diversity, the merged Companies Commitment to diversity in a number of different contexts. I know everyone will agree having a Diverse Group of individuals as Real Partners both inside and outside of the country is important. At ts Public Interest statement pledges at ts diversity best practices will be applied to directv. Such action would be laudable given at turkeys his with supplier diversity and inclusion. Mr. Stephenson, please describe the best practices referenced in the Public Interest statement. Yes. First ill start with employees we have a strong belief our employees reflect the market they serve. I dont think you can be successful in the marketplace employees, executive all the way up to the board that reflects the peopl
Bergmaier to comment about anything hes heard during the questioning period so far with our two distinguished witnesses. Yes. Thank you. I think when it comes to the investment promises that at ts making, i would urge the subcommittee to basically put them in context. I think a lot of at ts numbers consist of upgrades, adding a fixed wireless product to a fixed wireless coverage area. That might be some amount of investment, but it is less than an initial buildout. I think its important to put it in context that way and also put it into the context of at ts existing upgrade plans. At t already has a fairly ambitious buildout plan that has something called project v. I. P. Which talks about a lot of the new buildout and coverage that at t plans to do. At t has an initiative where it wants to upgrade a number of cities to gigabit wired broadband, however, its not exactly clear the scope of at ts existing plans. We know that theyre ambitious based on at ts statements but its hard to quant
Better ability to access large amounts of cash needed. However, this raises issues of market power and the possibility for abuse of a firms dominant competitive position. These are issues that are appropriate for consideration in a hearing like this. For the most part, the companies before us today engage in very different businesses. At t is primarily a provider of services. Internet directv is exclusively a Video Service provider. Begun to offerly a Video Service which is referred to as universe, which is a competitor in various parts of the country. In addition to its Video Service company, it has a few Sports Networks in the pittsburgh, denver, and seattle areas. Todays hearing will examine how the proposed merger may impact the future of universe and its ability provoke to provide services to consumers during the merger. Ill also examine submittedirectv have a paper arguing the merger will allow the combined company to offer a bundled product that will and hence Consumer Choice i
, he wasoining pepsico the Senior Vice President and general manager for avon products. He worked as a Management Consultant before that. He holds a masters degree from Johns Hopkins university and a bachelors degree from boston college. Lieberman is a. Graduate of Johns Hopkins. Fordhite is also a Foundation Fellow at Leningrad State University in st. Petersburg, russia. Constituents are very loyal customers. Our next witness, we are glad to stephensonr. Randall , the chairman, president of at t. Let me say this. At t is one of the Worlds Largest telecommunication companies. Note that over the past six years, at t has invested more capital into the United States economy than any other public than 140d more billion invested in Wireless Operations combined. That is erected to be proud of. I commend you for that. , he servedcoming ceo as the chief Financial Officer at at t from 2001 through 2004 and then as the chief operating officer from 2004 through 2007. He was appointed to the board