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AT&T Announces That Deal To Buy Time-Warner Has Closed Immediately After Trump Announces He Will Kill It

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Jack Flash
AT&T Announces That Deal To Buy Time-Warner Has Closed Immediately After Trump Announces He Will Kill It

Just hours after Trump’s Gettysburg address in which he announced he would kill such a deal as being “bad for democracy” via “too much condentration of power,” all the major news sources lit up with the announcement that the deal had closed. Interesting.

Excerpted From The Wall Street Journal: AT&T Inc. reached an agreement to buy Time Warner Inc. for $85.4 billion in a deal that would transform the phone company into a media giant.

The wireless carrier agreed to pay $107.50 a share, it said in a press release Saturday night. The deal is half cash and half stock.

AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson will head the new company and Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes will leave after an interim period following the deal, a person familiar with matter said.

The acquisition will put telecom veteran Mr. Stephenson, 56 years old, atop a business that combines the carrier’s millions of wireless and pay-television subscribers with Time Warner’s deep media lineup including networks such as CNN, TNT, the prized HBO channel and Warner Bros. film and TV studio.

For Time Warner, the deal represents a victory for Mr. Bewkes, 64, who took some heat from investors for rebuffing a takeover bid two years ago from 21st Century Fox at $85 a share. (21st Century Fox and Wall Street Journal-owner News Corp share common ownership.)

Time Warner has agreed to pay a $1.7 billion breakup fee if another company outbids AT&T’s offer, a different person familiar with the plans said. AT&T meanwhile would pay $500 million if the deal gets blocked, this person said.

AT&T will tap $40 billion in bridge loans, a person said, with $25 billion coming from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and $25 billion from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Keep reading

  • Bud_Dwyers_Brain

    Dollard – where do you get your coke?

    • ATTILA727

      Same place you get your butt plugs.

      • Bud_Dwyers_Brain

        Really?!? Your mother’s mouth has everything, I guess

  • Gaius_Suetonius_Tranquillus

    “Regulatory approval is no slam dunk for this deal.

    There are also valid concerns regarding the regulatory climate for such a deal. Will regulators approve the deal at all? Or if they do, will they burden it with so many conditions that it ends up being more trouble than its worth.

    One area sure to receive significant scrutiny is exclusivity of Time Warner content. AT&T already allows DIRECTV programming to flow across its mobile network without counting towards a subscriber’s monthly data allowance. Regulators will surely frown upon that and will probably dictate conditions that block such behavior. Comcast has conditions on their NBC Universal deal that aim to prevent exclusivity of content.

    There is also a change of FCC leadership to come, due to the presidential election and one candidate, Trump, has already signaled he would oppose the deal if elected. Hillary Clinton had not yet commented at this post’s publishing.”

    http://www.telecompetitor.com/att-time-warner-regulatory-approval-one-hurdle-blockbuster-deal/

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