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Mr. Antitrust Predicts the Future of Streaming

Makan Delrahim
Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
February 27, 2022

When I joined Puck, about a month ago, I received a congratulatory note from none other than Makan Delrahim, who headed the antitrust division at the Department of Justice during the Trump presidency. Delrahim has had a large roaming career, which included previous stint at the D.O.J. under Bush 43 in addition to a tenure at the white shoe L.A. firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, where he represented some of the largest corporations in the U.S. But he’s perhaps most famous for his role in AT&T’s laborious, protracted acquisition of Time Warner, which took place amid Trump’s open war against CNN, and is being fully unwound in the coming weeks, as Discovery acquires those very assets. Delrahim was happy about my professional move, but he was most eager to discuss Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of video game giant Activision Blizzard.

At the D.O.J., Delrahim was an assertive and intellectually curious Antitrust Czar, especially about issues in the media industry. His office not only challenged the aforementioned AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner. He also intervened in a legal fight between Hollywood talent agents and writers. And he famously sent a letter warning the motion picture Academy against adopting Oscar eligibility rules that would disadvantage Netflix, Amazon, and other streaming services. I sometimes questioned his activism, but, when I profiled him for The Hollywood Reporter two years ago, I found him thoughtful and industrious. In turn, I think he appreciated a journalist willing to dive into the weeds of competition policy.