AT&T beefs up lobbying after merger proposal

AT&T spent more money on lobbying during 2016 in the midst of its proposed merger with Time Warner than it has since 2012. The telecommunications company spent $16,370,000 in 2016, almost $2 million more than the $14,860,000 AT&T spent on lobbying in 2015. Time Warner has not released its fourth quarter data on lobbying spending. However, in the first three quarters of 2016, the company had slightly increased its lobbying expenses from $2,026,000 in the first three quarters of 2015 to $2,187,000 in 2016. In the last four years, AT&T only spent more in 2012 during their attempted, contentious horizontal merger with T-Mobile. The Department of Justice approved the merger, but the Federal Communications Commission ruled that the deal failed to meet “the burden of proving that the proposed transaction, on balance, will serve the public interest.” That year AT&T spent $17,460,000 on lobbying expenses.