AT&T on the verge of acquiring Time Warner?

[MRP]

According to reports in the NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/22/bu...rner.html?_r=0 and Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/articles/at-t-ret...074334?tesla=y AT&T is in serious negotiations to take over Time Warner and all its subsidiaries, and it could happen as soon as this weekend, though the deal could still fall apart. This would include Warner Studios, DC Comics, HBO, TNT, TBS, CNN and other entertainment content outlets and producers.

If AT&T does acquire Time Warner, it will be interesting to see the fallout as they streamline their acquisition to attempt to maximize its profitability. AT&T seems focused on TV and movie entertainment content and outlets to pair with their delivery service, so I am not sure the print parts of the Time Warner empire are a high priority to them, just the IP they provide. It will also be interesting to see who stays in current positions at TW holdings and who are replaced if AT&T does acquire them and if people are replaced which projects they backed fall by the wayside as new leadership takes over. Of course, nothing is solid yet, and the deal could collapse, get delayed, or change in nature before all is said and done, but this would be a major shift in the entertainment field if it does end up going through.

-M

[blaster86]

Wow �� This is for real

[Troian]

The cell phone company? What..

[blaster86]

Time Warner has agree to 85 billion sale to AT&T
http://deadline.com/2016/10/time-war...itter-deadline

[king of hybrids]

i expect that at the least CN and DC's squabbling will be cut out; wonder how it'll effect stuff like CW though

[Crazy Diamond]

Time Warner has agree to 85 billion sale to AT&T
http://deadline.com/2016/10/time-war...itter-deadline

This is not good. These companies keep merging into each other.

[GreenLanternRanger]

This is not good. These companies keep merging into each other.

Agreed. And here I thought monopolization was supposed to be illegal.

[Caivu]

Agreed. And here I thought monopolization was supposed to be illegal.

That's not what's happening here, is it?

[Lee Stone]

That's not what's happening here, is it?

Doesn't look like it.
I believe it's safe as long there's a minimum of two separate entities offering the same service, providing a means for competition and choice for consumers.

Think they learned their lesson in 1982.

[Ascended]

That's not what's happening here, is it?

Legally? Not exactly.

A monopoly is defined as "the exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service." This deal isn't creating a monopoly because there are other giant corporations out there that provide, in theory, healthy competition.

What this is doing however, is creating a oligopoly, defined as "a state of limited competition, in which a market is shared by a small number of producers or sellers." The internet is actually a fairly good example of this; you've got a small handful of companies out there that control the vast majority of products; Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. And there's a degree of competition between them, but also a lot of communication and cooperation.

As far as I know, oligopolies aren't regulated like monopolies are (and governments can still "grant" monopolies to certain companies for certain things too). However, its almost as bad as a monopoly for a lot of reasons. And we've been headed in this direction for decades, with no sign that it'll change any time soon. Hope you're all ready to bow down to our new corporate overlords!

[Jabare]

The cell phone company? What..

AT&T is a massive company. They use to be even bigger years ago before the government broke them up. But it's still a huge company that owns Directv At&T inverse and various other properties.


Companies have been trying to buy Time Warner for years now. Charter just bought it a while back after the FCC blocked Comcast from buying it, so they had to settle for Dreamworks.


Consolidation to mega corporations is the way of the future

[somacula]

Agreed. And here I thought monopolization was supposed to be illegal.

It's not a monopoly, AT & T is an communication services provider but owns no media at all
WB is a full media group but don't provide any communication service, they're completely different entities
There ain't no monopoly here, just two supergiants of different kinds merging

[skyvolt2000]

AT&T is a massive company. They use to be even bigger years ago before the government broke them up. But it's still a huge company that owns Directv At&T inverse and various other properties.

Companies have been trying to buy Time Warner for years now. Charter just bought it a while back after the FCC blocked Comcast from buying it, so they had to settle for Dreamworks.

Consolidation to mega corporations is the way of the future

U-verse is gone next year-too many fees kill it. That is why they bought Direct TV.

That's not what's happening here, is it?

Yes and no.

There are places Time Warner can go that AT & T can't and vice versa.

Also if you name is CRAP in one part of the city or country-you can still be there under another name.

It can be a monopoly if you try to deny something with one and not with the other. And that is the fear.

Lets take the network Chiller-under AT & T U-verse-I got it and a few other channels (CBS Sports, Encore & Starzz) for $80 a month.

Direct TV-I have to pay higher price for Chiller and even higher for Encore & Starzz.

If they were the same folks back then-it would be an issue.


I think the big question is how does this impact DC and even the CW since this will be the first networks that they own. Are they going to look at properties like Disney is doing?

[GreenLanternRanger]

It's not a monopoly, AT & T is an communication services provider but owns no media at all
WB is a full media group but don't provide any communication service, they're completely different entities
There ain't no monopoly here, just two supergiants of different kinds merging

Oh I know that, I was just being dramatic. It does worry me though how over the past decade we have had so many big &/or notable companies buy each other out, merge, etc. I know its nothing new for the business world, but it does seem like it has become somewhat more commonplace then it was say 20-30 years ago. But I am old fashioned and prefere there to be alot of independent companies in compitition with one another as opposed to a handful of companies hoarding as many other companies & IPs as they can under their umbrella. I just feel like the corperate world is kind of cannibalizing itself to a degree and that may not be good in the long run.

But hey thats just my 2-cents and I am in no way a business major so I could be completly wrong.

[Talkinghead22]

Companies have been trying to buy Time Warner for years now. Charter just bought it a while back after the FCC blocked Comcast from buying it, so they had to settle for Dreamworks.

Charter bought Time Warner Cable the cable television and internet service provider/telecom company. They did not buy the company AT&T may buy: Time Warner Inc (The media company that owns IP like DC along with film studios...etc). Warner has shed numerous parts over the past few years. So essentially all AT&T is buying is a media company. All this talk of monopoly and oligopoly does not apply.
I was hoping Fox would buy them to make the X-men movie license situation even more awkward.