Five years ago this week… After a six-week trial, telecom titan AT&T’s vertical merger with the media and entertainment giant Time Warner was approved by a US District Court Judge. Faultline argued the DoJ should have faced criticism for not extracting consent decrees from AT&T about its usage of the swathes of content it was set to receive from Time Warner. Following the AT&T-Time Warner decision that week, Comcast raised its bid to acquire 21st Century Fox, seeing its fears of antitrust crackdown alleviated in the positive verdict its competitor was given. The cableco’s rival in the pursuit of 21CF’s assets, Disney, was ultimately the victorious party. Comcast made do by acquiring Sky later that year. Stage one…